Portugal is set to hold its third election in just over three years, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced on Thursday.
The snap vote, scheduled for May 18, was forced two days after the center-right minority government lost a vote of no confidence in the parliament in Lisbon.
Rebelo de Sousa disbanded the Assembly of the Republic and called the national ballot after consulting the major parties and his advisory Council of State, which includes representatives of the main political parties and which he said unanimously agreed to head to the polls.
The government has taken on a caretaker role until a new parliament is elected.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro presented the confidence motion last week after the opposition threatened to establish a parliamentary inquiry into his family’s data protection consultancy.
They argue that its contracts with private companies have benefited Montenegro during his premiership.
It has recently come out that the firm is receiving monthly payments from a company that has a major gambling concession granted by the government, among other sources of revenue.
Rebelo de Sousa said the election was something “most likely no one expected or wanted,” lamenting that the crisis around the prime minister’s company and how it unfolded will inevitably feature in the electoral campaign.
He also called for a “clear, direct, but calm, dignified electoral debate.”
Speaking to the nation on television, Rebelo de Sousa urged voters to engage with the election, saying that Europe faces security and economic challenges that require political stability across the continent.
Montenegro’s Social Democratic Party rallied to his cause and confirmed that he would stay at the helm into the vote, laying the blame for the crisis at the feet of the Socialist opposition.
The Social Democratic Party is the senior partner in the Democratic Alliance which comprises two other parties, the People’s Party and the People’s Monarchist Party.
Recent surveys show the Socialists and the alliance led by Montenegro both hovering around 30 percent, which would mean little change from last year’s election, prompting worries that this election will only perpetuate instability.
The right-wing Chega Party is polling third but slightly below the 18 percent it garnered the last time the Portuguese went to the ballot box.
With voters frustrated at politicians who continue to plan successive elections but fail to ensure government stability, analysts expect abstention to increase this time.
Last March, a record 6.47 million people went to the polls, an increase of around 900,000 voters from 2022, which benefitted the anti-establishment Chega.
This latest governmental collapse has brought about the worst instance of political instability since Portugal adopted a democratic system more than 50 years ago in the wake of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, which ended the four-decade dictatorial rule of António de Oliveira Salazar.
The nation of 10.6 million people has had a string of minority governments over recent years as the traditional rivals for power, the center-right Social Democratic Party and the center-left Socialists, bled away votes to smaller parties.
Those minority governments have been unable to negotiate compromises to allow an administration to complete its constitutional four-year term without opposition parties teaming up to bring it down.
Lisbon is investing more than 22 billion euros ($24 billion) in EU development funds.
