Portugal’s 11 presidential candidates debate migration, instability

A record number of 11 candidates in Portugal’s coming presidential election kicked off their campaigns on Sunday.

The official two-week campaign period preceding the January 18 election will see the contenders competing to capture voters’ support. However, the broad field makes it unlikely that any candidate will capture more than 50 per cent of the vote, leaving the two top candidates to compete in a run-off ballot on February 8.

Among the front runners, according to recent opinion polls, are the candidates from the country’s two main parties that have alternated in power for the past 50 years – Luís Marques Mendes from the centre-right Social Democratic Party, currently in government, and António José Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party.

They are expected to face strong challenges from André Ventura, the leader of the populist anti-immigration Chega party, whose surge in support made it the second largest party in Portugal’s Parliament last year, and Henrique Gouveia e Melo, a retired rear admiral running as an independent who won public acclaim for overseeing the speedy roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

In Portugal, the president is largely a figurehead with no executive power. Mostly, the head of state aims to stand above the political fray, refereeing disputes to defuse tensions. However, the president also possesses powerful tools, being able to veto legislation from Parliament, although the veto can be overturned, as well as dissolve Parliament and call for snap elections.

After Portugal’s third general election in three years in May, its worst spell of political instability for decades, the next head of state is likely to encourage compromises. But the next occupant of the president’s riverside “pink palace” in Lisbon is likely to have to rule on some hot-button matters.