António José Seguro, the socialist candidate who in a first survey months ago did not obtain more than 6% in voting intention, will become the new president of Portugal after defeating the populist candidate, André Ventura, at the polls. A historic victory due to the massive support he has received from the Portuguese (the most forceful ever, above Mário Soares) and because it is the consecration of a politician who shuns polarization in times where hate propagators are rampant. Also due to the great mobilization in a country devastated by the succession of storms in the last two weeks.
The socialist received twice as many votes as in the first round, which confirms the concentration around him of voters who were looking for a president who would respect the rules of the game in the face of the uncertainty that Ventura represented. In percentage terms, Seguro received 66.8% while the populist candidate reached 33.1%. Thus, there would be no more surprise regarding what was anticipated in the polls carried out during the campaign or what happened in which the margin of victory was much wider than expected. “I am thrilled with the Portuguese people’s attachment to constitutional values,” Seguro said in his first statement.
He recalled his modest origins (“I am one of you”), announced that the majority that had led him to victory was extinguished this Sunday and repeated his campaign mantra: “I am free, I live without ties. My freedom is the guarantee of my independence.” He also defended the “culture of commitment” to solve people’s problems and recognized that the result of the polls exceeded his expectations.
The victory also means the return of a socialist to the head of state after 20 years of center-right politicians (Social Democratic Party) such as Aníbal Cavaco Silva and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. But it is not a victory of one party. First, because presidential candidacies are personal and transversal. And secondly because it is a resounding personal victory for António José Seguro (Penamacor, 63 years old), who was a candidate initially reviled by prominent representatives of the Socialist Party (PS).
His emergence into this race was not celebrated in the socialist apparatus months ago, but his victory has made everyone close ranks around him, including past critics. And the president-elect, who abandoned the socialist leadership in 2014 after losing the primaries against António Costa, made it clear that he is turning the page. “I look to the future,” he declared as he struggled through the rain towards the cultural center of Caldas da Rainha, where his followers were waiting for him.
The result, in any case, provides an overdose of optimism for your organization, which is going through the worst moment in its history. In the last legislative elections, the PS was surpassed by Chega, the far-right party founded in 2019 by André Ventura (Algueirão-Mem Martins, 43 years old), and was relegated to third position in Parliament, an unusual fact in democracy.
One of the first to celebrate the result was the socialist leader, José Luís Carneiro, to highlight that it is “the victory of all democrats” and “constitutional rights.” Carneiro highlighted the plural support gathered around Seguro, which has gone beyond the socialist camp and had received the support of different personalities on the right.
Ventura also reacted quickly to recognize his rival’s victory, but claimed as an achievement for Chega that he surpassed 30% of the votes despite the “union of the entire system against my candidacy.” His objective for this round was to surpass the 31% of the votes that the coalition led by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro obtained in the early elections of 2025 to show that he can be a serious contender to replace him in the Government in the next call. After having surpassed 1.7 million votes, a new milestone for a party that was only six years old, Ventura claimed for himself the leadership of the right and predicted that they will govern “this country shortly.”
As he did in the campaign, António José Seguro promised constitutional loyalty to the Government (“I will not be a counterpower”) but also warned that he will be demanding in asking for effective responses to resolve some important crises in the country, such as health, the lack of housing and, now, the catastrophe caused by the weather. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro also offered his willingness to cooperate with the president-elect and showed his confidence that a cycle of political stability will now begin. “Different political readings may be made, but in these elections the Government was not in the game,” said the prime minister.
António José Seguro also anticipated that he would not promulgate it and that it has been responded to in the streets with a general strike to increase precariousness, if he does not achieve a greater consensus, something that Montenegro advanced as possible in his intervention this Sunday. Vetoing laws is one of the prerogatives of the President of the Republic of Portugal, as well as dissolving the Assembly of the Republic and calling early elections. Due to his conciliatory profile, and to his left, they have mobilized to block the way for Ventura, a politician from the center-right who has radicalized to conquer power with a speech against immigrants, gypsies and corrupt people, which hooks a part of the population.
The Portuguese have voted more than in other presidential elections, despite the desolation that sweeps through a part of the country after the serious damage caused by the succession of storms, something highlighted by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, as “a test of maturity” during his speech. For this Sunday, it was necessary to alter the location of 66 polling stations and postpone voting for a week in three locations, where some 36,000 voters reside, who will vote knowing the final verdict.
Some 76,000 people spent Sunday without electricity – most have been without electricity for more than a week – and several thousand are also without water supplies. In some areas isolated by flooding, such as Ereira, voting was guaranteed by means of zodiac travel, carried out by soldiers and firefighters. The storm, which has caused 15 deaths and forced the evacuation of a thousand people, . The Government has mobilized an aid plan worth 2.5 billion euros, but its initial slowness in responding has placed it at the center of criticism from the opposition and the mayors of the affected municipalities.
The destruction had a full impact on the electoral campaign and forced the two candidates to improvise an agenda adapted to the new reality. André Ventura promoted campaigns to collect essential goods and filmed himself carrying bottles of water for the victims. António José Seguro visited several damaged towns without press in the first moments. In his victory speech, he dedicated his first words to the catastrophe. “The solidarity of the Portuguese people was heroic, but it cannot replace the action of the Government,” he stated.
It is the second time in the history of Portuguese democracy that a second round has been held to elect the next head of state. The previous one occurred four decades ago, when the socialist Mário Soares and the conservative Diogo Freitas do Amaral clashed. On that occasion, Soares won by a narrow margin of 150,000 votes. In this, the difference between Seguro and Ventura exceeded 1.7 million.
