The 2023 Portuguese Socialist Party leadership election was held on 15 and 16 December 2023. The leadership ballot was called after Prime Minister and Socialist Party Secretary-General António Costa resigned from office on 7 November 2023. The winner of this election led the Socialist Party into the 2024 legislative election.
The declared candidates included the former Infrastructure and Housing Minister Pedro Nuno Santos, who represented the leftist faction of the party and wants to build upon the legacy of António Costa, Internal Administration Minister José Luís Carneiro, who represented the moderate faction and a continuation of Costism, and Daniel Adrião, a longtime critic of Costa as Secretary-General, who represented a rupture.
Even with the candidates claiming the contrary, this leadership election was viewed as another ideological dispute to decide what direction the party and the country should take, similar to the leadership elections of 2014 between Costa and António José Seguro, of 2004 between José Sócrates and Manuel Alegre and of 1992 between António Guterres and Jorge Sampaio.
With a turnout rate of around 70%, Pedro Nuno Santos was elected as the new Secretary-General of the Socialist Party with almost 61% of the votes, against the 37% of José Luís Carneiro. Daniel Adrião polled below 1%.
Background The Socialist Party (PS), led by then Prime Minister António Costa, won an absolute majority in the 2022 legislative election with 41 percent of the votes and 120 seats in the 230 seat Assembly of the Republic.
António Costa's third government was sworn in on 30 March 2022. This government proved to be unstable and experienced several scandals. By mid-2023, the government had seen the resignations of 11 secretaries of state and two ministers."Terceiro Governo de Costa já teve 13 baixas em apenas 16 meses" , ECO, 7 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023. The biggest scandal involved TAP Air Portugal and a compensation payment to a government member, Alexandra Reis."26 dias. Alexandra Reis durou menos tempo no Governo que Miguel Alves " , ECO, 28 December 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023. This case was followed by a violent incident, in late April 2023, at the Ministry of Infrastructure, between government staff members and an advisor to Minister João Galamba regarding an alleged stolen laptop."Acusações, ocultações, suspeitas de agressões – até houve pessoas refugiadas no WC: guia para entender a nova crise no Governo (mas dá mesmo para entendê-la?)" , CNN Portugal, 28 April 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023. The deployment of the Portuguese Secret Services in this case stirred a clash between Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the incumbent president of Portugal, and Prime Minister António Costa concerning the future of Galamba and the government itself."Marcelo arrasa Galamba e promete ser mais "interventivo" e "atento" com Costa" , Diário de Notícias, 4 May 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
Operation Influencer
On 7 November 2023, the Public Security Police and the Public Prosecutor's office carried out a series of searches at the official residence of the Prime Minister and other ministries, leading to the arrest of the Prime Minister's chief of staff. Costa was named as a suspect in a corruption case involving the awarding of contracts for the lithium and hydrogen businesses, but denied any wrongdoing. He met President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the Presidential Palace and announced his resignation shortly after, stating that he would not run for re-election.
Following Costa's resignation the Socialist Party proposed a new cabinet led either by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, the Governor of the Bank of Portugal, Mário Centeno, or by the former minister António Vitorino, that would last until the end of the government's term in 2026. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa however, after meeting with the Council of State, dissolved the assembly and called an early election for 10 March 2024.
The Prime Minister's resignation was not made official immediately; it was postponed until 8 December 2023, so that the State Budget for 2024 could be approved by parliament. It was the first time a single party majority government did not complete its full term in democratic Portugal.
Candidates
Declared Name Born Experience Announcement date Ref.José Luís Carneiro(age 52)BaiãoMinister of Internal Administration (2022–2024)Member of Parliament for Braga (since 2022)Deputy Secretary-general of the Socialist Party (2019–2022)Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities (2015–2019)Mayor of Baião (2005–2015)Member of Parliament for Porto (2005; 2015–2022)10 November 2023Pedro Nuno Santos(age 46)São João da MadeiraMember of Parliament for Aveiro (since 2005)Minister of Infrastructure and Housing (2019–2023)Secretary of State for Parliament Affairs (2015–2019)Secretary-general of the Socialist Youth (2004–2008)13 November 2023Daniel Adrião(age 56)Member of the National Commission of the Socialist Party (2016–2025)Candidate in the PS leadership elections of 2016, 2018 and 202117 November 2023
Declined Ana Catarina Mendes – Minister of Parliamentary Affairs (2022–2024) António José Seguro – former Secretary-general of the Socialist Party (2011–2014) Fernando Medina – Minister of Finance (2022–2024); former Mayor of Lisbon (2015–2021) (endorsed José Luís Carneiro) Francisco Assis – former MEP of the Socialist Party (PS) (2004–2009; 2014–2019); former mayor of Amarante (1990–1995) (endorsed Pedro Nuno Santos) Mariana Vieira da Silva – Minister of the Presidency (2019–2024) Marta Temido – former Minister of Health (2018–2022); chair of the Lisbon Socialist Party (2023–2024) Mário Centeno – governor of the Bank of Portugal (since 2020); former President of the Eurogroup (2018–2020); former Minister of Finance (2015–2020) Notable endorsements
Campaign period Candidates' slogans Candidate Original slogan English translation Refs José Luís Carneiro « Por Todos. Para Todos » "By All. For All" Pedro Nuno Santos « Portugal Inteiro » "Whole Portugal" Daniel Adrião « Democracia Plena » "Full Democracy"
Candidates' debates José Luís Carneiro and Daniel Adrião proposed a series of debates between the candidates, but Pedro Nuno Santos refused to participate in any debate. Therefore, no debates between the candidates to the leadership were held.
Opinion polling All voters Polling firmFieldwork dateSample sizeOthers/UndecidedLeadICS/ISCTE18–27 Nov 202380326 24 502CESOP–UCP15–24 Nov 20231,102 2938 339Aximage18–23 Nov 202380252 26 2226 Intercampus 14–17 Nov 2023 60431.7 28.1 40.23.6Aximage10–13 Nov 202350432185014 Aximage 8–9 Nov 2023 51630 9 6121
PS voters Polling firmFieldwork dateSample sizeOthers/UndecidedLeadICS/ISCTE18–27 Nov 2023 ?37 32 315CESOP–UCP15–24 Nov 2023 ?39 34 275Aximage18–23 Nov 2023?61 26 1335Aximage10–13 Nov 2023?3123478
All voters Polling firmFieldwork dateSample sizeFernando MedinaPedro Nuno SantosMariana Vieira da SilvaAna Catarina MendesMarta TemidoAugusto Santos SilvaPedro Adão e SilvaOthers/ UndecidedLeadICS/ISCTE10–18 Sep 2022807 1264381654Intercampus14–23 Sep 2021609 21.0 20.0 11.7 10.2 25.9 11.24.9
PS voters Polling firmFieldwork dateSample sizeFernando MedinaPedro Nuno SantosMariana Vieira da SilvaAna Catarina MendesAugusto Santos SilvaOthers/ UndecidedLeadICS/ISCTE10–18 Sep 20228071566516511
Results National summary Candidate 15 & 16 December 2023 Votes % Pedro Nuno Santos 24,219 60.83 José Luís Carneiro 14,891 37.40 Daniel Adrião 382 0.96 Total 39,492 Valid votes 39,492 99.19 Invalid and blank ballots 322 0.81 Votes cast / turnout 39,814 68.65 Registered voters 57,993 Source:
Results by party federation The following table shows a breakdown of the results of the election by party federation, which are mostly equal to the electoral circles. +Result breakdown of the 2023 Portuguese Socialist Party leadership electionFederationPedro Nuno SantosJosé Luís CarneiroDaniel AdriãoInvalidballotsVotes castRegisteredVotes%Votes%Votes% Algarve71062.5041336.36121.0611,1361,491 Aveiro1,29975.1740423.38100.58151,7282,096 Baixo Alentejo40556.9629140.9360.849711862 Braga2,92855.372,28043.12190.36615,2887,897 Bragança56058.8237339.1890.95109521,131 Castelo Branco54958.1037339.4750.53189451,123 Coimbra1,87468.8080029.37351.28152,7243,506 Évora27063.0814533.8881.875428534 Guarda48760.0531739.0950.622811986 Leiria61158.5841039.31131.2591,0431,249 Lisbon: Urban Area3,26566.851,51931.10611.25394,8847,165 Lisbon: Oeste12636.4221261.2751.453346415 Portalegre54468.7723029.0881.0197911,036 Porto4,95156.883,62741.67530.61738,70411,321 Santarém75270.2829327.38161.5091,0701,252 Setúbal1,38266.3865631.51271.30172,0822,942 Viana do Castelo54665.0028934.4040.481840976 Vila Real49946.8155752.25100.9401,0661,316 Viseu1,38667.6863531.0130.15242,0482,478 Azores32165.9116533.8800.0014874,677 Madeira49340.2872559.2360.4901,2241896 Europe11754.677735.98198.881214892 Outside of Europe14449.3210034.254816.440292752
See also Elections in Portugal List of political parties in Portugal
Notes
References
External links PS Official website