A socialist and a far-right candidate will face each other in the second round of the presidential elections in Portugal.

BarcelonaModerate socialist António José Seguro has won the presidential election in Portugal, defeating far-right candidate André Ventura, whom he will face in a runoff. With 50% of the votes counted, the results show Seguro with approximately 30% of the vote and Ventura with around 26.9%. If the predictions hold true, Seguro will need to secure a second round of voting on February 8th to govern the country. This is the first time since 1986 that a presidential election has required a runoff to determine the winner, highlighting the fragmentation of the political landscape with the rise of the far right and voter disillusionment with the main parties.

In third place would have been the liberal João Cotrim de Figueiredo, of the right-wing Liberal Initiative party, who would have obtained between 17% and 21% of the votes, confirming the rise of new parties on the Portuguese political scene.

More than 11 million Portuguese were called to the polls this Sunday to choose which of the 11 candidates would succeed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. The elections were held normally and had a turnout of 45.5%, a figure slightly higher than in the previous election.

"Today I voted with great emotion and with great hope for the future of Portugal. This is what is happening; every Portuguese man and woman is deciding the future of the country. I believe in the wisdom of the Portuguese people," the former Socialist leader said at the polling station.

One of the images left by the elections is that of the crisis of the traditional right. The results foreshadow a overtaking From the far-right Chega party, led by Ventura, to the moderate right of Luís Marques Mendes, punished after attacks on his private businesses. And at the same time, voters have opted for newly created parties: while Chega—founded in 2019—took second place, the liberal Cotrim party of Figueiredo has also made a meteoric rise. Last May, the anti-establishment and anti-immigration party Chega, founded just seven years ago, became the main opposition party in parliamentary elections, with 22.8% of the vote. However, all recent opinion polls indicate that Ventura will lose the second round due to his high disapproval rating of over 60% of voters.