Right Parties leading opinion polls on the eve of Portugal election on May 18

In three national polls in three years, once strong Communist Party showing steady decline

- BY SATYAKI CHAKRABORTY

Portugal, a very important member of the European Union with a strong economy, is going for national elections next Sunday, May 18 to elect its 230 member Parliament.

The 2025 elections will be the third one in the last three years showing the fragility of the coalition governments. No single political party is in a position to get majority in Parliament on its own.

In the last elections held in March 2024, the rightwing Democratic Alliance (AD) topped with 80 seats out of the total of 230 in Parliament. AD was followed by the Socialist Party led by Pedro Nano Santos with 77 seats while the far right Chega got 50 seats. Portuguese Communist Party got only 4 seats and the Left Bloc just 5. AD formed the government on its own as the single largest party refusing to form any coalition with the far right Chega which improved its position to 50 seats from its earlier tally of only 12.

Latest opinion polls reveal that the ruling party AD is at 32 per cent as against PS’s 28 per cent while the far right Chega may get 19 per cent of the votes and the Portuguese Communist Party’s vote share is put at below 5 per cent. This means that AD is far better placed compared to the 2024 elections when there was a close fight between AD and PS. AD got 28 per cent of the votes while PS got 27 per cent.

The political scenario in Portugal after the last national polls had some similarities with Germany where the largest party CDU did not form any coalition with the far right AFD but opted for a three party coalition of CDU - the earlier ruling Social Democratic Party and the Greens. CDU leader Frederick Merz is now the German Chancellor taking oath on May 7 this year promising to fight U.S. President Trump's policies as also the far right AFD.