1985 Portuguese legislative election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1985 Portuguese legislative election took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
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6 October 1985
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All 250 seats in the Assembly of the Republic 126 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 7,818,981 6.6% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 5,798,929 (74.2%) 3.6 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The election was called after the resignation, in June 1985, of Socialist Party (PS) Prime Minister Mário Soares, following the withdrawal of the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) from the Central Bloc after Cavaco Silva's election as PSD leader. Soares didn't contest the election, deciding to run for the January 1986 Presidential elections instead.
On election day, the Social Democrats came in first place with nearly 30% of the votes and Cavaco became Prime Minister, while the Socialists achieved their worst result ever, less than 21% of the votes and 57 seats.[1] The election was the first of three consecutive election victories for the Social Democratic Party. The Communists also lost votes and MPs, and the left would only return to the government ten years later, in 1995. CDS as well had a drop in support, following their rejection of a PSD/CDS joint list for the election.[2]
The election results were also prominent because a new party had been formed by supporters of the then-incumbent President Ramalho Eanes, the Democratic Renewal Party (PRD). Despite being led by Hermínio Martinho, the main figure of the party's campaign was First lady Manuela Ramalho Eanes, who campaigned on behalf of her husband.[3][4] The party's results were a surprise, gaining more than one million votes and electing 45 MPs, becoming the parliamentary support of Cavaco's government until 1987, when it withdrew its support, causing the government to fall.
Background
Government fall
Two years after being formed, in the aftermath of the 1983 election, the Central Bloc government (PS+PSD) became very unpopular, with deep divisions forming both between the two coalition parties and within them, as growing poverty, budget cuts and unemployment, due to the International Monetary Fund bailout policies, were leading to massive protests. In February 1985, Carlos Mota Pinto resigned from the PSD leadership and planned to run in the next party congress.[5] However, he died just before the congress and Cavaco Silva was elected as leader. Shortly after his election, Cavaco Silva withdraw his party from the government and Soares Central Bloc government fell.[6] President Eanes dissolved the Assembly and called a new election for 6 October.[7]
Leadership changes and challenges
Social Democratic Party
By 1985, deep divisions were consuming the PSD regarding their role in the Central Bloc government with the PS.[8] Then deputy Prime Minister and PSD leader Carlos Mota Pinto, resigned from both the government and the party's leadership and a snap party congress was called.[9] But, Mota Pinto, who was expected to run for the leadership in the snap congress, died suddenly just 10 days before the start of the congress in Figueira da Foz.[10] João Salgueiro, the candidate from "Mota Pinto's wing" was expected to win easily, but former finance minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva surprised the party by announcing a late candidacy, in what is now known as the "Running-in of Cavaco's new Citroën".[11] Cavaco Silva had the support of the wings against the Central Bloc, and against all odds he defeated Salgueiro by just 57 votes.[12] The results were the following:
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aníbal Cavaco Silva | 422 | 53.6 | |
| João Salgueiro | 365 | 46.4 | |
| Turnout | 787 | ||
| Source: Results[13] | |||
Socialist Party
After the fall of the Central Bloc government, Mário Soares was acclaimed as the PS candidate for the 1986 Presidential election, and shortly thereafter, António Almeida Santos was selected as the party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 1985 legislative election, defeating a last minute candidacy from Jaime Gama.[14][15]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| António Almeida Santos | 30 | 61.2 | |
| Jaime Gama | 14 | 28.6 | |
| Abstention | 5 | 10.2 | |
| Turnout | 49 | 100.0 | |
| Source:[14] | |||
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.[16]
The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[17] 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.[18]
For these elections, and compared with the 1983 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[19]
| District | Number of MPs | Map |
|---|---|---|
| Lisbon | 56 | 
16
6
39
6
4
15
10
5
11
6
11
12
56
3
5
17
5
9
5
5
2
2
|
| Porto(+1) | 39 | |
| 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 | 4 | |
| Portalegre(–1) | 3 | |
| Europe and Outside Europe | 2 |
Parties
Before the election, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) considered running in a joint coalition for the elections, with the PSD "offering" 25 safe seats to CDS on the lists, but this proposal was rejected by CDS and the two parties decided to contest the election separately.[2] The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 3rd legislature (1983–1985) and that also partook in the election:
Campaign period
Issues
Following two years of strong austerity and political instability, voter apathy was a concern during the campaign.[21] The Socialist Party (PS), under a new leader, Almeida Santos, blamed the instability on the PSD and sought a majority of its own, with banners asking voters "43% for the PS",[22] but the party was damaged by high unemployment and the IMF bailout measures.[21] On the other hand, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), also under a new leader, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, personalized its campaign around the leader, portraying Cavaco as a strong and stable figure.[21] The campaign was also marked by the "eruption" of the Democratic Renewal Party (PRD), which campaigned under a populist message, aligned with the popular incumbent President António Ramalho Eanes.[21]
Party slogans
| Party or alliance | Original slogan | English translation | Refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS | « O que prometo, faço. Vamos a isto. » | "What I promise, I do. Let's do this." | [23] | |
| PSD | « Retomar a esperança » | "Resuming hope" | [24] | |
| APU | « Vitória da APU para salvar o país » | "Victory for APU to save the country" | [25] | |
| CDS | « Confiança, razão, força para Portugal » | "Trust, reason, strength for Portugal" | [26] | |
| PRD | « Mais Portugal » | "More Portugal" | [27] | |
Candidates' debates
| 1985 Portuguese legislative election debates | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Organisers | Moderator(s) | P Present A Absent invitee N Non-invitee | |||||||||||||||||
| PS Santos |
PSD Cavaco |
APU Cunhal |
CDS Pires |
Refs | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 Sep | RTP1 | Mário Crespo | P | A[b] | P | P | [28][29] | |||||||||||||
| 5 Sep | RTP1 | Mário Crespo | N | A[c] | P | P | [30][31] | |||||||||||||
| 10 Sep | RTP1 | Mário Crespo | P | P | N | P | [32][33] | |||||||||||||
| 12 Sep | RTP1 | Mário Crespo | P | P | P | N | [34] | |||||||||||||
| Candidate viewed as "most convincing" in each debate | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | Organisers | Polling firm/Link | ||||||||||||||||||
| PS | PSD | APU | CDS | Notes | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 Sep | RTP1 | Expresso | 36 | N/a | 23 | 25 | 16% Neither | |||||||||||||
Opinion polling
The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1983 and 1985 for reference.
Exit poll / Forecast
| Polling firm/Link | Date Released | PS |  |
 |
 |
 |
O | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 legislative election | 6 Oct 1985 | 20.8 57 |
29.9 88 |
15.5 38 |
10.0 22 |
17.9 45 |
5.9 0 |
9.1 |
| RTP1 | 6 Oct 1985 (22:50) | 22.0–26.9 | 26.8–29.7 | 15.0–18.1 | 9.3–10.8 | 14.5–16.5 | – | 2.8 4.8 |
| RTP1 | 6 Oct 1985 (21:10) | 23.8–26.9 | 28.0–29.8 | 17.3–18.1 | 9.8–10.7 | 11.1–14.9 | – | 2.9 6.0 |
| Rádio Comercial | 6 Oct 1985 | 19–22 | 29–31 | 14–16 | 8–16 | 18–22 | – | 9–10 |
| Expresso | 4 Oct 1985 | 28–32 | 27–31 | 15–17 | 9–12 | 8–11 | – | 1 |
| Norma | 29 Apr 1985 | 24.7 | 16.4 | 18.4 | 17.1 | 8.4 | 15.0 | 6.3 |
| Norma | Mar 1985 | 21.1 | 18.4 | 20.0 | 19.2 | 5.5 | 15.8 | 1.1 |
| Marktest | Feb 1985 | 15.0 | 21.3 | 15.0 | 17.1 | 28.6 | 3.0 | 7.3 |
| Norma | 25 Feb 1985 | 20.7 | 21.6 | 17.8 | 17.6 | 10.0 | 12.3 | 0.9 |
| Norma | 21 Jan 1985 | 21.3 | 22.9 | 20.3 | 16.2 | N/a | 19.3 | 1.6 |
| Marktest | Dec 1984 | 18.6 | 23.0 | 14.3 | 16.2 | 25.4 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| Norma | Dec 1984 | 23.5 | 25.2 | 23.4 | 13.2 | N/a | 14.7 | 1.7 |
| Marktest | Nov 1984 | 19.8 | 24.0 | 15.5 | 14.9 | 23.3 | 2.5 | 0.7 |
| Norma | Nov 1984 | 20.7 | 22.7 | 22.4 | 17.5 | N/a | 16.7 | 0.3 |
| Marktest | Oct 1984 | 20.6 | 23.4 | 15.8 | 13.4 | 25.0 | 1.8 | 4.0 |
| Norma | 15 Oct 1984 | 23.9 | 24.8 | 23.1 | 14.7 | N/a | 13.5 | 0.9 |
| Marktest | Sep 1984 | 18.8 | 22.6 | 15.2 | 15.7 | 26.6 | 1.1 | 4.0 |
| Marktest | Aug 1984 | 19.2 | 22.8 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 26.9 | 1.7 | 4.1 |
| Marktest | Jul 1984 | 17.9 | 20.6 | 16.9 | 13.4 | 29.0 | 2.2 | 7.7 |
| Norma | Jul 1984 | 21.5 | 23.6 | 20.3 | 15.4 | N/a | 19.2 | 2.1 |
| Marktest | Jun 1984 | 19.8 | 16.7 | 16.6 | 16.9 | 27.5 | 2.5 | 7.7 |
| Norma | Jun 1984 | 24.2 | 21.5 | 22.1 | 17.0 | N/a | 15.2 | 2.1 |
| Marktest | May 1984 | 25.4 | 19.8 | 13.9 | 14.6 | 24.6 | 1.7 | 0.8 |
| Marktest | Apr 1984 | 28.7 | 19.5 | 15.2 | 10.8 | 17.7 | 8.1 | 9.2 |
| Norma | Apr 1984 | 21.9 | 26.0 | 21.4 | 15.7 | N/a | 15.0 | 4.1 |
| Marktest | Mar 1984 | 22.6 | 16.6 | 14.1 | 12.7 | 15.0 | 19.0 | 6.0 |
| Marktest | Feb 1984 | 18.3 | 15.9 | 12.4 | 10.3 | 20.8 | 22.3 | 2.5 |
| Marktest | Jan 1984 | 19.9 | 15.4 | 12.5 | 7.3 | 22.7 | 22.2 | 2.8 |
| Norma | Jan 1984 | 31.8 | 22.8 | 21.2 | 13.3 | N/a | 10.9 | 9.0 |
| 1983 legislative election | 25 Apr 1983 | 36.1 101 |
27.2 75 |
18.1 44 |
12.6 30 |
N/a | 6.0 0 |
8.9 |
Results
National summary
 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | |
| Social Democratic Party | 1,732,288 | 29.87 | +2.63 | 88 | +13 | |
| Socialist Party | 1,204,321 | 20.77 | –15.34 | 57 | –44 | |
| Democratic Renewal Party | 1,038,893 | 17.92 | New | 45 | New | |
| United People Alliance[d] | 898,281 | 15.49 | –2.58 | 38 | –6 | |
| Democratic and Social Centre | 577,580 | 9.96 | –2.60 | 22 | –8 | |
| Popular Democratic Union | 73,401 | 1.27 | +0.79 | 0 | 0 | |
| Christian Democratic Party | 41,831 | 0.72 | +0.03 | 0 | 0 | |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party | 35,238 | 0.61 | +0.38 | 0 | 0 | |
| Portuguese Workers' Communist Party | 19,943 | 0.34 | –0.03 | 0 | 0 | |
| Workers' Party of Socialist Unity | 19,085 | 0.33 | –0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
| Communist Party (Reconstructed) | 12,749 | 0.22 | +0.22 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 5,653,610 | 100.00 | – | 250 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 5,653,610 | 97.49 | +0.06 | |||
| Invalid votes | 96,610 | 1.67 | –0.16 | |||
| Blank votes | 48,709 | 0.84 | +0.10 | |||
| Total votes | 5,798,929 | 100.00 | – | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 7,818,981 | 74.16 | –3.63 | |||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições | ||||||
Distribution by constituency
| Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | Total S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSD | PS | PRD | APU | CDS | |||||||
| Azores | 48.3 | 3 | 20.1 | 1 | 15.2 | 1 | 4.4 | - | 6.5 | - | 5 |
| Aveiro | 38.4 | 6 | 23.0 | 4 | 13.4 | 2 | 6.5 | 1 | 13.5 | 2 | 15 |
| Beja | 13.7 | 1 | 20.1 | 1 | 11.6 | - | 44.9 | 3 | 2.2 | - | 5 |
| Braga | 32.8 | 6 | 21.8 | 4 | 16.8 | 3 | 8.5 | 1 | 14.0 | 2 | 16 |
| Bragança | 39.2 | 2 | 22.7 | 1 | 6.9 | - | 5.3 | - | 17.1 | 1 | 4 |
| Castelo Branco | 31.2 | 3 | 18.5 | 1 | 24.4 | 2 | 8.9 | - | 9.6 | - | 6 |
| Coimbra | 29.5 | 4 | 28.5 | 3 | 16.9 | 2 | 10.1 | 1 | 8.6 | 1 | 11 |
| Évora | 19.1 | 1 | 14.3 | 1 | 15.8 | 1 | 41.2 | 2 | 3.3 | - | 5 |
| Faro | 28.4 | 3 | 22.3 | 2 | 20.5 | 2 | 15.4 | 2 | 6.1 | - | 9 |
| Guarda | 33.6 | 2 | 23.3 | 2 | 10.9 | - | 5.2 | - | 19.5 | 1 | 5 |
| Leiria | 38.6 | 5 | 19.6 | 2 | 15.3 | 2 | 7.9 | 1 | 12.2 | 1 | 11 |
| Lisbon | 25.6 | 15 | 19.8 | 12 | 21.3 | 13 | 20.1 | 12 | 8.1 | 4 | 56 |
| Madeira | 56.8 | 4 | 13.2 | 1 | 9.7 | - | 3.2 | - | 7.8 | - | 5 |
| Portalegre | 20.9 | 1 | 23.7 | 1 | 18.9 | - | 25.2 | 1 | 4.9 | - | 3 |
| Porto | 29.3 | 12 | 23.6 | 10 | 20.5 | 8 | 12.1 | 5 | 9.8 | 4 | 39 |
| Santarém | 27.8 | 4 | 18.6 | 2 | 23.8 | 3 | 16.4 | 2 | 7.7 | 1 | 12 |
| Setúbal | 15.4 | 3 | 16.5 | 3 | 20.4 | 4 | 38.2 | 7 | 3.8 | - | 17 |
| Viana do Castelo | 33.5 | 3 | 18.4 | 1 | 16.2 | 1 | 8.2 | - | 16.6 | 1 | 6 |
| Vila Real | 42.2 | 3 | 23.0 | 2 | 8.6 | - | 5.9 | - | 12.5 | 1 | 6 |
| Viseu | 37.7 | 5 | 20.0 | 2 | 10.9 | 1 | 5.0 | - | 19.9 | 2 | 10 |
| Europe | 24.3 | 1 | 24.2 | 1 | 7.1 | - | 18.8 | - | 17.3 | - | 2 |
| Outside Europe | 40.5 | 1 | 7.8 | - | 3.3 | - | 2.6 | - | 37.9 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 29.9 | 88 | 20.8 | 57 | 17.9 | 45 | 15.5 | 38 | 10.0 | 22 | 250 |
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições | |||||||||||
Maps
Winner and seats by constituency.
Most voted political force by municipality.
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Aftermath
Fall of the government
In early 1987, a trip of a Portuguese parliamentary delegation to the Soviet Union created a diplomatic issue as the delegation also traveled to Estonia, a territory that wasn't recognized by the Portuguese State as a Soviet controlled territory. Because of this incident, opposition parties accused Cavaco Silva of disallowing Parliament, and shortly afterwards, the Democratic Renewal Party (PRD) proposed a motion of no confidence against the government.[35] At first, the Socialists (PS) weren't supportive of the PRD's motion, but last-minute negotiations led the PS to also support the motion. On 3 April 1987, the motion was approved by a 134 to 108 vote and the government fell:[36]
| Motion of no confidence Aníbal Cavaco Silva (PSD) | |||
| Ballot → | 3 April 1987 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Required majority → | 126 out of 250 | ||
108 / 250 | |||
134 / 250 | |||
Abstentions
|
1 / 250 | ||
7 / 250 | |||
| Result → | Approved  | ||
| Sources[37][38] | |||
Mário Soares was on an official trip to Brazil when he was informed of the outcome of the motion, which displeased the President, returning to Lisbon to meet with the parties seated in the Assembly. The PS, PRD and PCP proposed an alternative government to the PSD minority, but Soares rejected this and called a snap general election for 19 July 1987, which resulted in a landslide PSD majority government.[39][40]
See also
Sources
- Fundação Mário Soares (1985). "Eurico de Melo parte loiça nos estúdios de televisão" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
Notes
- The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP/CDE) contested the 1983 election in a coalition called United People Alliance (APU) and won a combined 18.1% of the vote and elected 44 MPs to parliament.
- Aníbal Cavaco Silva, PSD leader, refused to participate in the debate.
- Aníbal Cavaco Silva, PSD leader, refused to participate in the debate, being replaced by Eurico de Melo, however, the latter was forbidden from participating.Fundação Mário Soares 1985
- Portuguese Communist Party (35 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (3 MPs) ran in coalition.