XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal

On 7 November 2023, Portuguese prosecutors detained António Costa's chief of staff Vítor Escária and named the minister of Infrastructure João Galamba a formal suspect in an investigation into alleged corruption in lithium mining, green hydrogen and a data centre deals. Over 40 searches were carried out in several buildings, including Escária's office, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Action.^[5]

Costa met with the President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and announced his resignation in a televised statement in the afternoon, saying that "the dignity of the functions of prime minister is not compatible with any suspicion about his integrity, his good conduct and even less with the suspicion of the practice of any criminal act".^[6]

On 9 November 2023, after meeting with the Council of State and talking with the political parties represented in the parliament, president Rebelo de Sousa announced snap legislative elections to be held on 10 March 2024. Because the 2024 government budget debate was still underway in the parliament and, by law, elections need to be held within 60 days of the dissolution of the parliament, president Rebelo de Sousa officially dissolved the parliament more than two months later, on 15 January 2024.^[7][8] On 2 April 2024, the new center-right minority government, led by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, took office to succeed António Costa, resulting from the slim victory of the Democratic Alliance in the snap election.^[9]