(18 May 2025)
RESTRICTONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lisbon – 18 May 2025
1. Various of voters inside polling station
2. Entrance to polling station
3. Close of sign reading (Portuguese) “Do you know where to vote?”
4. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Isabel Monteiro, Teacher:
“I was born before the 25th of April (Portuguese Revolution) I witnessed it and spent all my youth during those years of revolution and post-revolution so I feel democracy in me and will always vote as long as I can. Now, this campaign was very, very week, had ridiculous moments, like clown-ish. Very little was spoken about Portugal within the European Union, it’s like we are not part of it. So I came with the conviction that I need to vote as it is my civic duty but I come with a bit of sadness and disenchantment with all parties.”
5. Polling station
6. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Name not given, voter:
“I am afraid of instability because there will be a lot of abstention and the result achieved will not have the quorum for what the majority requires. Having again such shattered Parliament it will be very difficult.”
7. Polling station
8. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Alexandre Cardoso, Pensioner:
“I don’t have many expectations, I have more anxieties than expectations. There is no leadership, we are lacking people with character, with righteousness. It is unknown (what to expect).”
9. Polling station
10. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Alexandre Cardoso, Pensioner:
“It worries me more due to my grandchildren. I am a veteran, I was in Guinea (referring to the colonial war during dictatorship) so I have lived through a lot in this country, I was part of the 25th of April. There is a lot of disenchantment, a lot, specially for people of my generation that have gone through what we did. I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
11. People arriving
12. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Miguel Rosa, financial analyst:
“The spirit today is less enthusiastic than in the previous two elections also because the expectation is that everything will remain the same, but we cannot lose motivation, when there is this spirit it is even more important to come out and vote and that’s why I’m here and I have done it. (to vote)”
13. Voters inside polling station
STORYLINE:
Voters in Portugal return to the polls Sunday for a third general election in three years, as the country’s increasingly fragmented political landscape defies efforts to unite behind policies on pressing national issues such as immigration, housing and the cost of living.
Hopes that the ballot might end the worst spell of political instability in decades for the European Union country of 10.6 million people could be dashed, however. Polls suggest the election is poised to deliver yet another minority government, leaving the Portuguese back where they started.
For the past 50 years two parties have dominated politics in Portugal, with the center-right Social Democrats and the center-left Socialist Party alternating in power. They are likely to come out on top in this ballot, too.
But public frustration with their record in government has fueled the growth of new alternatives in recent years. That has denied the bigger parties enough seats in Parliament to snare a majority needed to ensure they serve a full four-year term.
Polls suggest a center-right alliance is favored a center-right minority government headed by the Social Democrats in partnership with the smaller Popular Party lost a confidence vote in parliament in March after less than a year in power, as opposition lawmakers teamed up against it. That triggered an early election, which had been due only in 2028.
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