Moderate Socialist Antonio Jose Seguro came out on top in the first round of Portugal's presidential election on Sunday, followed by the far-right leader Andre Ventura, and the two will face off in a 8 February runoff.
In the past five decades, a Portuguese presidential election has required a runoff only once in 1986, underscoring how fragmented the political landscape has become during the rise of the far right and growing voter disenchantment with mainstream parties.
With all the votes in Portugal counted, Seguro garnered 31.1%. Ventura was at 23.5%.
Joao Cotrim de Figueiredo of the right-wing, pro-business Liberal Initiative party came third among a total of 11 contenders, winning around 16%.
Last May, the anti-establishment, anti-immigration Chega, founded just about seven years ago, became the main opposition party in a parliamentary election, winning 22.8% of the vote.
As in much of Europe, the rise of the far right has swayed government policies, particularly on immigration, towards a more restrictive stance.
However, all recent opinion polls have shown Ventura, a former sports TV commentator, losing the runoff due to his high rejection rate of more than 60% of voters.
Ventura sounded combative as he left a Catholic mass he had attended in downtown Lisbon: "Now we need to unite the entire right wing ... I will fight day by day, minute by minute, second by second so that there won't be a Socialist president. We will win," he said.
"The country has woken up after these 40 years of no runoffs," he told supporters later.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said his centre-right Social Democrats, whose candidate Luis Marques Mendes came fifth at 11.3%, would not support any of the runoff contenders.
In a recent note, the Economist Intelligence Unit wrote that a Seguro-Ventura runoff "would be more straightforward given his (Ventura's) limited appeal beyond his core base".
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The U.S. ambassador to Portugal has urged Lisbon to replace its ageing F-16 fighter jets with Lockheed Martin’s F-35, saying the stealth aircraft would ensure compatibility with Europe’s top-tier air forces.
Portugal's parliament approved a bill on Thursday (12 February), on its first reading, requiring explicit parental consent for children aged 13 to 16-years old to access social media, in one of the first concrete legislative moves in Europe to impose such restrictions.
António José Seguro’s decisive victory over far-right challenger André Ventura marks an historic moment in Portuguese politics, but analysts caution that the result does not amount to a rejection of populism.
Centre-left António José Seguro secured a landslide win in Portugal’s presidential runoff, defeating far-right rival Andre Ventura and becoming the country’s first Socialist head of state in 20 years.
<p>Follow the latest developments and global reaction after the United States and Israel launched "major combat operations" in Iran, prompting retaliation from Tehran.</p>
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are escalating, with Washington ordering a significant military build-up in the region and multiple countries evacuating diplomatic staff amid fears of further instability.
Two people were killed and around 40 injured when a tram derailed in central Milan on Friday (27 February), a spokesperson for the local fire service said.
Pakistani air strikes hit a weapons depot on the western outskirts of Kabul overnight, triggering hours of secondary explosions that rattled homes across the Afghan capital and left residents fearing further violence.
Iran’s top diplomat said that the next round of nuclear talks is expected in less than a week after what he described as “progress in the most serious exchanges” between Tehran and Washington. The statement follows the third round of nuclear talks on Thursday (26 February) in Geneva.
A senior Iranian official has warned Israel to “prepare for what is coming”, insisting that Tehran’s response to the latest escalation in the Middle East will be made openly and without limits.
Cuba has released extensive details of a deadly midweek shootout at sea, showing rifles, pistols and nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition that it says were carried by a group of exiles who attempted to enter the island by speedboat.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said on Friday (27 February) they were ready to negotiate after Pakistan bombed their forces in several Afghan cities, including Kabul and Kandahar, and Islamabad declared the neighbours were now in "open war".
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are escalating, with Washington ordering a significant military build-up in the region and multiple countries evacuating diplomatic staff amid fears of further instability.
Two people were killed and around 40 injured when a tram derailed in central Milan on Friday (27 February), a spokesperson for the local fire service said.
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