Centro-right leads research on legislative elections in Portugal

Lisbon (Reuters)-The Democratic Alliance (AD), a right-wing party that rules Portugal, maintained its lead in a new opinion poll released on Friday, but is still far from achieving the majority in a parliament that seems to remain fragmented. The election is scheduled for May 18th.

The ICS/ISCTE survey published by the newspaper Expresso showed that voting intentions in AD – which came to power in an early election last year – fell from 33% to 32% over a period of two weeks.

The percentage leaves the party away from a parliamentary majority that, according to the Portuguese proportional representation system, could only be reached with at least 42% of the votes.

The survey also showed that the center-left socialist party (PS) also lost support from 29% to 27%.

In the election of March 2024, AD and PS ended practically tied, with 28% and 27% of the votes, respectively, which led to an AD minority government.

José Tomaz Castello Branco, professor of political science at the Catholic University of Portugal, said research suggests that “the day after the election, the situation will not be much different from the current one.” “This will be the most dramatic result,” he told Reuters.

Portugal Prime Minister Luis Montenegro failed to gain parliament confidence. Two months ago, the opposition questioned him about the business of a consulting firm he founded. The controversies led to Portugal’s third parliamentary election in three years.

Montenegro, now in an interim position, denies any irregularity.

The far-right party arrives, with which Montenegro refuses to do agreements, is third in the polls, with 19%-above 18% he obtained in last year’s election-apparently leaving unharmed from scandals involving several of its senior members.

The ICS/ISCTE survey interviewed 1,002 people between April 25 and May 5. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.