An election was held in Portugal on Sunday, 9 June 2024, to elect the Portuguese delegation to the European Parliament from 2024 to 2029. It took place as part of the wider 2024 European Parliament election. This was the ninth European Parliament election held in Portugal. This election took place just three months after the 10 March 2024 legislative election, which resulted in a very narrow win for the Democratic Alliance, thus was seen as a "second round" of the March elections.
The Socialist Party (PS) narrowly polled ahead of the Democratic Alliance (AD), 32 percent versus 31 percent, although the result nearly mirrored the also very narrow result of the March 2024 legislative election. In terms of seats, the Socialists had a net loss of one, winning 8, while the AD held their 7 seats won in 2019. It was the first national election, in democratic Portugal, where a woman led her party's list to victory.
The major defeated in the election was CHEGA (CH), gathering less than 10 percent and winning just two seats, a result well below the 18 percent of the votes in the March election. The Liberal Initiative (IL) scored a strong result, 9 percent and 2 seats, in addition to polling very close to CHEGA. The Left Bloc (BE) and the Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) lost considerable ground, gathering just 4.2 and 4.1 percent, respectively, and holding both one seat, while Livre, although increasing its share, failed to win a seat. PeopleâÂÂAnimalsâÂÂNature (PAN) performed badly, losing their sole seat, and polling behind the far-right National Democratic Alternative (ADN).
For the first time in 20 years, voter turnout increased with a total of 36.6 percent of voters casting a ballot. In Portugal alone, turnout stood at 42.3 percent, the highest share since 1989. The final and certified election results were published in the Portuguese official journal, Diário da República, on 28 June 2024.
The voting method used, for the election of European members of parliament, is by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method. For the 2024 European Parliament elections, Portugal had 21 seats to fill. Members of Parliament are elected in a single constituency, corresponding to the entire national territory.
The proposed election day, 9 June, conflicted with the Portugal Day holiday on 10 June, as well as with other several local holidays. The government feared that an election close to so many holidays would suppress turnout and attempted to find a compromise with EU countries to find an alternative date, but, no unanimity was reached and the election was then expected to be held on 9 June.
On 4 April 2024, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, signed the decree that confirmed the date of the elections for the European Parliament on 9 June 2024.
After winning the 2024 legislative election within the Democratic Alliance coalition, the Social Democratic Party, the CDS â People's Party and the People's Monarchist Party decided to run again in the following European Parliament election. Incumbent independent Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, was widely expected to be the main candidate of the AD, even though it raised some concerns within the PSD as the party was part of the opposition in the Porto City Council. In the end, unexpectedly, LuÃÂs Montenegro chose journalist and political commentator Sebastião Bugalho as the main candidate, after inviting Rui Moreira to be the second candidate, to which he refused.
Meanwhile, the Socialist Party had a number of potential candidates, such as former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ana Catarina Mendes, former Minister of Health Marta Temido, former Minister of Education Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, former MEP Francisco Assis, former European Commissioner António Vitorino, and even former Prime Minister António Costa, as a launching ramp for a candidacy for President of the European Council. In the end, Pedro Nuno Santos chose Marta Temido as the main candidate.
Voters were also able to vote early, which happened on 2 June, one week before election day. Voters had to register between 26 and 30 May 2024 in order to be eligible to cast an early ballot. By the 30 May deadline, 252,208 voters had requested to vote early, a number thirteen times higher than in 2019, and also higher than in the 2024 March legislative election. On 2 June, 225,039 voters (89.2 percent of voters that requested) cast an early ballot.
This is a list of the parties that were on the ballot and their main candidates.
The campaign was dominated by issues like immigration and defence, with national politics also an issue due to the narrow victory of the Democratic Alliance in the 10 March legislative elections and the unstable situation of LuÃÂs Montenegro's minority government, with the prospect of a possible snap election in the short term.
<noinclude> Polls that show their results without distributing those respondents who are undecided or said they would abstain from voting, are re-calculated by removing these numbers from the totals through a simple rule of three, in order to obtain results comparable to other polls and the official election results.</noinclude>
The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day including voters from Overseas.