Antonio Jose Seguro of theĀ center-left Socialist PartyĀ won the second round of the presidential election inĀ PortugalĀ on Sunday.
With 99% of ballots counted, Seguro had wonĀ 66.7% of votes to secure a five-year term.
Seguro saw off a challenge from the far-right populist Chega party’s AndreeĀ Ventura, who won 33.3% of the vote.
The 63-year-old will succeed conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The Portuguese president is largely a figurehead with no executive powerĀ but can veto legislation, dissolve parliament and call early elections.
Ventura said he will keep working to bring about a political “transformation”Ā in Portugal.
“I tried to show thereā€™s a different way ā€¦ that we needed a different kind of president,” he told reporters.
Portugal showed ‘resilience’ in holding election after storm disruption
The election campaign had been upended by fierce storms that killed at least seven people.
The disruption from the storms forced around 20 of the worst-hit constituencies to postpone the vote by a week, but it went ahead for nearly all the 11 million eligible voters in Portugal and abroad.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Seguro on his win, adding that “Portugalā€™s voice for our shared European values remains strong.”
“The Portuguese citizens have spoken and, in the face of devastation caused by the storms, demonstrated remarkable democratic resilience,” she wrote.
French President Emmanuel Macron also congratulated Seguro, saying he would work with the new president to strengthen ties between Portugal and France.Ā
Who is Seguro?
During the first round three weeks ago, Seguro came out top, with 31% support, but fell farĀ short of an absolute majority.
Seguro has positioned himself as a moderate who will cooperate with Portugalā€™s center-right minority government.
The veteran politician returned fromĀ a teaching hiatus specifically for this race, which he has framed as a clear choice between democracy and radicalism.
Far-right Chega candidate fails to secure presidency
This contrasts with Ventura and his Chega (Enough) party, which has quickly grownĀ in popularity since its founding seven years agoĀ due to its leader’s anti-establishment and anti-immigrant tirades.
Ventura, a former TV sports commentator and lawyer, has also pushed for tougher action on corruption andĀ crime, promising harsher sentences for criminals, including life imprisonment and chemical castration for sex offenders.
During the campaign, Ventura put up billboards across the country saying, “This isnā€™t Bangladesh”Ā and “Immigrants shouldnā€™t be allowed to live on welfare.”Ā He promised strong state support for those on low incomes, but only for Portuguese nationals.
Although Chega was founded just seven years ago, it quickly grew to become the second-largest party in parliament following theĀ general election in May 2025.
Portuguese hope for political stability
The May 2025 election was Portugal’s third general election in three years in the country’s worst bout of political instability for decades. Previous administrationsĀ collapsed amid corruption and conflict of interest scandals, rising populism and unstable minority governments.
Keeping stability will beĀ a key challenge for the next president,Ā especially as theĀ center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) coalition, with 91 seats,Ā still lacks an absolute majority in the 230-seat parliament.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery and Karl Sexton