Text by Rita Alves

The legislative elections of May 18, 2025, marked a turning point in Portuguese politics. In an article published on the Who Governs Europe platform, CIES-Iscte researchers José Santana Pereira and Guya Accornero analyze the results in light of the growing tripolarization of the Portuguese party system.

According to the authors, the new Parliament reveals an unprecedented distribution of forces, with the Democratic Alliance (AD) winning without an absolute majority, Chega consolidating itself as the second force, and the Socialist Party (PS) losing its centrality. The analysis also highlights the fragmentation of the left, the advance of Livre, and the continuation of a cordon sanitaire around the radical right.

The article contributes to the academic debate on the transformations of representative democracy in European contexts, discussing the factors that explain the decline of traditional political forces and the repositioning of new ideological agendas in the Portuguese political space.

The full article can be found here.