1983 Portuguese legislative election

The 1983 Portuguese legislative election took place on 25 April. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

The election was called after two and a half years of significant instability, from the dead of Francisco Sá Carneiro in an aircrash in December 1980, to deep internal divisions within the Democratic Alliance (AD) under the leadership of Francisco Pinto Balsemão.

The Socialist Party (PS) emerged victorious with 36 percent, and Mário Soares was nominated Prime Minister. However, the Socialists lacked a majority in the Assembly of the Republic and were forced to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, which achieved 27 percent, in what was called the "Central Bloc". Although this coalition allowed Soares to govern, several members of both parties were against it, and internal attacks led to the collapse of the coalition after less than two years.

Besides the two main parties, the Communist-dominated United People Alliance (APU) gained 3 MPs and 18 percent of the votes, while the Democratic and Social Center (CDS), after the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance, garnered 30 MPs, a loss of 16, and 12 percent of the votes. On the other hand, the Popular Democratic Union (UDP) lost its sole seat that it had since 1975.

This would the last legislative election to be won by the Socialist Party until 1995.

Background

In October 1980, the Democratic Alliance (AD), led by Francisco Sá Carneiro, was reelected with a reinforced majority, but it was cut short with his death, his partner Snu Abecassis, his Defense minister Adelino Amaro da Costa and wife, plus other crew members, in a tragic plane crash in Camarate, Loures, shortly after taking off from Lisbon Airport. This tragic air crash sparked a series of conspirancy theories, mainly because of Portugal's involvement in the Iran–Iraq War and the supply of weapons to both Iraq and Iran.

Following the death of Sá Carneiro, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, CDS leader, became interim Prime Minister until the election of a new PSD leader. Days later, Francisco Pinto Balsemão was elected PSD leader and sworn in as Prime Minister. During Balsemão's term in office, a significant revision of the Constitution in 1982, approved by the AD and the Socialists (PS), dissolved the Revolutionary Council, created the Constitutional Court (thus putting an end to military dominance over elected civilian power), removed some of the left-leaning ideological tone from the supreme law, and aimed to reduce the powers of the President of the Republic. At the same time, Balsemão's government faced a deterioration in the country's economic conditions, resulting from the adverse external situation, but mostly from the expansionary fiscal policies during the early days of the AD government, which severely damaged public finances.

Government fall

Pinto Balsemão had a lot of problems in leading the government, as he lacked support from many senior members of his party, such as Aníbal Cavaco Silva, former Finance minister under Sá Carneiro, and several of his cabinet ministers kept resigning, like Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, not to mention the very tense and fraught relationship with President Ramalho Eanes. Moreover, the right-wing policies were criticized by the left-wing and by trade unions, culminating in the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers, with the support of the Communists, calling a general strike in February 1982 that shook the government. The wave of resignations among Balsemão's ministers continued and by the end of 1982, and also influenced by the AD's weak results in the 1982 local elections, Balsemão himself also resigned.

The Social Democratic Party proposed, to President Ramalho Eanes, a government led by Vítor Crespo, and despite this name being narrowly approved by the Council of State, President Eanes rejected the proposal citing that the political conditions were just too deteriorated, and instead decided to dissolve Parliament and call an election for April."Presidente da República dissolve Assembleia da República, em 1983 ", RTP, 8 September 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2022. Shortly after, the AD was dissolved as PSD, CDS and PPM decided to contest by their own the April snap election.

Leadership changes and challenges Social Democratic Party On 13 December 1980, just a few days after Sá Carneiro's death, the PSD national party council elected Francisco Pinto Balsemão as party leader and nominated him to became Prime Minister. Balsemão was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 January 1981.

In early 1983, after the collapse of the AD coalition, the then PSD leader Francisco Pinto Balsemão announced he would not run again for the leadership of the party nor be the party's candidate for the early legislative election."Declarações de Pinto Balsemão", RTP, 8 February 1983. Retrieved 7 June 2022. Carlos Mota Pinto, former Prime Minister, supported Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos' candidacy for President of the party, in order for him to be the party's candidate for Prime Minister, while Pinto Balsemão's wing supported João Bosco Mota Amaral, President of the Regional Government of the Azores, who ended up dropping out. In a deeply divided Congress, Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos won the presidency, while Mota Pinto was selected by the PSD as the party's candidate for Prime Minister."PSD Carlos Mota Pinto", PSD. Retrieved 7 June 2022.

Democratic and Social Center Just like in the PSD, after the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance (AD), Diogo Freitas do Amaral also resigned from his party's leadership, and a snap congress to elect a new leader was called."História CDS", CDS-PP. Retrieved 7 June 2022. Two candidates were on the ballot, Francisco Lucas Pires and Luís Barbosa, with Lucas Pires being elected as new party leader."Do CDS ao CDS-PP: o Partido do Centro Democrático Social e o seu papel na política portuguesa", Richard A. H. Robinson, 1996. Retrieved 7 June 2022.

Electoral system The Assembly of the Republic has 250 members elected to four-year terms. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as even if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 126 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude. The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"

For these elections, and compared with the 1980 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following: District Number of MPs Map Lisbon 56 Porto 38 Setúbal 17 Braga 16 Aveiro 15 Santarém 12 Leiria and Coimbra 11 Viseu 10 Faro 9 Castelo Branco, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real 6 Azores, Beja, Évora, Guarda and Madeira 5 Bragança and Portalegre 4 Europe and Outside Europe 2

Parties The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 2nd legislature (1980–1983) and that also contested the elections: Name Ideology Political position Leader 1980 resultComposição dos Grupos Parlamentares/Partidos % Seats PPD/PSD Social Democratic Party Centre-right Carlos Mota Pinto47.6% CDS Democratic and Social Center Christian democracy Francisco Lucas Pires PPM People's Monarchist Party MonarchismGreen conservatism Right-wing Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles PS Socialist Party Social democracy Centre-left Mário Soares27.8% UEDS Left-wing Union for the Socialist Democracy Democratic SocialismWorkers' self-management Left-wing António Lopes Cardoso ASDI Independent Social-Democratic Action Democratic SocialismSocial democracy Centre-left António de Sousa Franco PCP Portuguese Communist Party CommunismMarxism–Leninism Far-left Álvaro Cunhal16.8% MDP/CDE Portuguese Democratic Movement Left-wing nationalismDemocratic socialism Left-wing José Manuel Tengarrinha UDP Popular Democratic Union MarxismSocialism Left-wing Mário Tomé 1.4%

Campaign period Issues The country's very difficult economic situation, with the need for austerity measures, dominated the campaign. The campaign itself was rather low-key, sign of the country's problematic economic situation and a gloomy electorate. The Socialist Party (PS), under the leadership of Mário Soares, envisioned a comeback, with Soares pointing to the need for a "clear majority" due to the country's bad shape, while the Social Democrats (PSD), led by a new leader, Carlos Mota Pinto, warned of the dangers of instability. Álvaro Cunhal's communist APU coalition ran under the motto of "defeating the reactionary parties", whereas the Democratic Social Center (CDS) campaigned on the basis of national liberalism.

Party slogans Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Refs PSD « Firmeza na decisão. Competência na acção. » "Firmness in the decision. Competence in action." PS « Juntos vamos conseguir » "Together we will do it" CDS « O nosso caminho é Portugal » "Our path is Portugal" APU « Vota APU, A solução! » "Vote APU, The Solution!"

Candidates' debates 1983 Portuguese legislative election debates Date Organisers Moderator(s) PSD PS CDS APU Refs 23 Mar Antena 1 PPPP 31 Mar RTP1 PPPP

Opinion polling

Polling firm/Link Date Released PS Lead 1983 legislative election 25 Apr 1983 27.2 12.6 36.1 18.1 6.08.9 RTP 25 Apr 1983 25.4–27.7 11.5–12.0 36.0–39.1 17.2–18.5 – 10.611.4 RTP 25 Apr 1983 22.0–25.5 12.0–14.5 36.0–38.5 16.5–19.0 – 13.014.0 Tempo Apr 1983 24 12.5 38 17 8.5 14 Euroexpansão 29 Jan 1983 24 12 33 19 12 9 1982 local elections 12 Dec 1982 42.5 31.8 20.7 5.0 10.7 Euroexpansão Sep 1982 22 19 28 18 13 6 Antropos 27 Jul 1981 42.0 36.1 13.9 8.0 5.9 25.1 9.9 42.4 14.0 8.6 17.3 1980 legislative election 5 Oct 1980 47.6 27.8 16.8 7.8 19.8

Results National summary

Distribution by constituency

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1983 Portuguese legislative election

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