It will be Portugal’s third election in as many years.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced on Thursday he would dissolve the country’s parliament on March 19 and called for snap national elections to be held May 18.
The dissolution follows Tuesday’s no-confidence vote against center-right Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, whom opposition parties accuse of falling foul of conflict of interest rules due to his connections with Spinumviva, a data protection firm owned by his family.
The snap legislative elections are the third to be held in Portugal since 2023 and come just 14 months after the previous vote. With so little time having elapsed between the ballots, Portugal’s political landscape remains virtually unchanged. Montenegro will once again stand as the candidate of the center-right Democratic Alliance and will face off against Socialist Party leader Pedro Nuno Santos.
According to the latest surveys, the center right is once again projected to win the most votes, narrowly ahead of the Socialist Party. Although support for the far-right Chega party has fallen slightly, it is still likely to remain the third-largest group in the parliament and will therefore be positioned to act as kingmaker during the next term.
With the country’s two largest parties neck-and-neck in the polls, participation is expected to be a decisive factor in the results, but it is feared that fatigue will keep electors from voting. The snap elections are being wedged into the middle of a year that was already set to be a marathon for voters.
Regional elections will be held on the autonomous region of Madeira later this month, while nationwide local elections are scheduled for the fall. Voters are set to head back to the polls for a final time in January, when they will be asked to choose Rebelo de Sousa’s successor as president.