From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1976 Portuguese legislative election

none

Field	Value
election_name	1976 Portuguese legislative election
country	Portugal
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1975 Portuguese Constituent Assembly election
previous_year	1975
next_election	1979 Portuguese legislative election
next_year	1979
seats_for_election	All 263 seats in the Assembly of the Republic
previous_mps	Constituent Assembly of Portugal
elected_mps	1st Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic
majority_seats	132
registered	6,564,667 5.4%
turnout	5,483,461 (83.5%)
8.2 pp
election_date	25 April 1976
image1
leader1	Mário Soares
party1	Socialist Party (Portugal)
leader_since1	19 April 1973
leaders_seat1	Lisbon
last_election1	116 seats, 37.9%
seats1	107
seat_change1	9
popular_vote1	1,912,921
percentage1	34.9%
swing1	3.0 pp
image2
leader2	Francisco Sá Carneiro
party2	PPD
colour2	FFA500
leader_since2	6 May 1974
leaders_seat2	Porto
last_election2	81 seats, 26.4%
seats2	73
seat_change2	8
popular_vote2	1,335,381
percentage2	24.4%
swing2	2.0 pp
image3
leader3	Diogo Freitas do Amaral
colour3	0093DD
party3	CDS
leader_since3	19 July 1974
leaders_seat3	Lisbon
last_election3	16 seats, 7.6%
seats3	42
seat_change3	26
popular_vote3	876,007
percentage3	15.9%
swing3	8.4 pp
image4
colour4	DA251E
leader4	Álvaro Cunhal
party4	PCP
leader_since4	31 March 1961
leaders_seat4	Lisbon
last_election4	30 seats, 12.5%
seats4	40
seat_change4	10
popular_vote4	788,830
percentage4	14.4%
swing4	1.9 pp
image5	[[File:União Democrática Popular logo, 1975.svg	85px]]
colour5
leader5	Acácio Barreiros
party5	UDP
leader_since5	1976
leaders_seat5	Lisbon
last_election5	1 seat, 0.8%
seats5	1
seat_change5	0
popular_vote5	91,690
percentage5	1.7%
swing5	0.9 pp
<!-- Map -->	title	Prime Minister
posttitle	Prime Minister after election
before_election	Vasco de Almeida e Costa (interim)
before_party	Independent (politician)
after_election	Mário Soares
after_party	Socialist Party (Portugal)
map	{{Switcher

8.2 pp

The 1976 Portuguese legislative election was held on Sunday 25 April, exactly one year after the previous election, and two years after the Carnation Revolution. With a new Constitution approved, the country's main aim was economic recovery and strengthening its democratic institutions. The election renewed all 263 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

The Socialist Party won a plurality of votes, almost 35 percent, and legislative seats, and its leader Mário Soares became the Prime Minister of the 1st Constitutional Government on 23 July 1976. The lack of a socialist majority forced his party to form an unexpected coalition with the Democratic and Social Center, a right-wing party. The nature of this coalition, between a socialist party and a conservative party that voted against the new constitution because of its socialist influences, surprised most Portuguese voters and marked the start of the Socialist Party's right-wing turn that would soon be attacked by all the left due to the new government's measures against left-wing reforms following the Carnation Revolution, mainly concerning agrarian reform, in what was called the PS putting "Socialism in the drawer".

The Social Democratic Party (then known as the Democratic People's Party, PPD) won the second most votes and seats, 24 percent of the votes, but polled 10 points below the PS. The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) achieved considerable gains that reflected its growing influence, mainly in the south of the country, gaining 14 percent of the votes. The big surprise in the elections was the strong showing of the Democratic and Social Center (CDS), which polled ahead of PCP and gathered 16 percent of the votes. Only 19 years later, in 1995, would the CDS again surpass the PCP in number of votes.

Voter turnout fell to 83.5 percent, compared with the 91.7 percent just a year before.

Background

Main article: Portuguese transition to democracy

Ongoing Revolutionary Process

Main article: Processo Revolucionário Em Curso

The previous elections, held on April 25, 1975, elected a new assembly to write a new Constitution. The election results gave the two main moderate parties (PS and PPD) a clear majority in Parliament, with almost 38 percent for the PS and more than 26 percent for the PPD. The PCP achieved a weak result, just 12.5 percent, while the CDS polled ahead of the MDP. The election results started a conflict of legitimacy between parties, the Armed Forces Movement and the Revolutionary Council. It was the start of the Ongoing Revolutionary Process, which culminated in the Hot Summer of 1975.

On May 1, 1975, the PS and the PCP held separate rallies and some violent clashes occurred between PS and PCP supporters. A few days later, in what was called "The República case", far-left supporters invaded the headquarters of República newspaper. The reason was a strike by the typographers and other workers, many close to the far-left UDP, accusing the editorial board of being too aligned with the PS. The case drew widespread international attention, and the PS started a full blown attack against the PCP and Prime Minister Vasco Gonçalves' government.

Positions become extreme as Vasco Gonçalves led the Ongoing Revolutionary Process. He started facing big opposition from the so-called "reactionaries" (the Catholic Church, groups close to the former Estado Novo regime and, unofficially, from the PS, PPD and CDS.), therefore, Vasco Gonçalves continued and forced his Democratic socialism policies with the nationalization of huge parts of the Portuguese economy.

Hot Summer of 1975

Main article: Hot Summer of 1975

By the beginning of the summer of 1975, the country was deeply divided. The "Hot summer of 1975" was starting. During this period, huge clashes between left and right supporters spread all across the country, some with big violence. The possibility of the country entering in a full blown Civil war was feared by many. On 19 July 1975, the PS held a massive rally in Lisbon, with the help of the Catholic Church and others, to fight against the PCP and Vasco Gonçalves government. Mário Soares, PS leader, accused the Gonçalves government, and those who support it, of being "Paranoids", "Demented" and "Irresponsibles who do not represent the Portuguese people".

During the summer of 1975, headquarters of the PCP, and other left-wing parties, in many cities in the North and Center of the country were vandalized and destroyed. Many leftwing supporters were also violently beaten by anti-left protesters. The violence and increased tensions across the country were damaging Vasco Gonçalves leadership in the government and divisions between the Armed Forces Movement and the Revolutionary Council were starting to show. When COPCON commander, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, withdrew his support from Gonçalves, the government was on its last days. On 20 September, Gonçalves leaves the government and Pinheiro de Azevedo is nominated as Prime Minister. Shortly after, on 26 September, the assault of the Spanish embassy in Lisbon by far-left supporters, in retaliation to the attacks on left-wing parties headquarters in the North and Center, drew widespread attention as it was broadcast by US network CBS.

25 November Coup and normalization

Main article: Coup of 25 November 1975

Main article: Portuguese Constitution of 1976

The new government was unable to control the tensions in the country and by mid November the government made the extraordinary announcement that they were on strike because there were no conditions to govern the country. Just before this announcement, construction workers unions surrounded Parliament and blocked MPs from leaving the building for two days.

All of this culminated in the events of the Coup of 25 November 1975. The coup was an attempt by left-wing activists who hoped to hijack the Portuguese transition to democracy in favor of Communists. The coup failed and shortly after a counter-coup led by Ramalho Eanes, a pro-democracy moderate, and supported by PS leader Mário Soares, re-established the democratic process.

By March 1976, the Constitutional Assembly had finally drafted the Constitution text and was sent to approval in April 1976. The Constitution draft was heavily ideological, with many references to Socialism and with many phrases that echoed Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. On 2 April 1976, the new Constitution was approved with the votes of all parties with the exception of CDS, which voted against citing the ideological content of the document. However, the party agreed to abide by it in the interim.

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 263 members elected to four-year terms. The total number of MPs increased to 263 from the 1975 total of 250 MPs. 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 132 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude. 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.

For these elections, and compared with the 1975 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

District	Number of MPs	Map
Lisbon	58
Porto	38
Setúbal	17
Aveiro and Braga	15
Santarém	13
Coimbra	12
Leiria and Viseu	11
Faro	9
Castelo Branco, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real	7
Beja, Évora, Guarda and Funchal	6
Bragança	5
Portalegre	4
Ponta Delgada	3
Angra do Heroísmo, Europe and Outside Europe	2
Horta	1

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the Constitutional Assembly (1975–1976) and that also, some, contested the elections:

Name	Ideology	Political position	Leader	1975 result
dissolution	%	Seats
Socialist Party (Portugal)}};"		PS	Socialist Party
Partido Socialista	Social
democracy	Centre-left	Mário Soares	37.9%
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)}};"		PPD	Democratic People's Party
Partido Popular Democrático	Liberalism	Centre	Francisco
Sá Carneiro	26.4%
Portuguese Communist Party}};"		PCP	Portuguese Communist Party
Partido Comunista Português	Communism	Far-left	Álvaro Cunhal	12.5%
CDS – People's Party}};"		CDS	Democratic and Social Center
Centro Democrático e Social	Christian
democracy	Centre-right	Diogo Freitas
do Amaral	7.6%
Democratic Electoral Commission}};"		MDP/CDE	Portuguese Democratic Movement
Movimento Democrático Português	Left-wing nationalism
Democratic socialism	Left-wing	José Manuel
Tengarrinha	4.1%
Left Bloc (Portugal)}};"		UDP	Popular Democratic Union
União Democrática Popular	Marxism
Socialism	Left-wing	Mário Tomé	0.8%
Association for the Defense of Macau Interests}};"		ADIM	Association for the Defense of Macau Interests
Associação para a Defesa dos Interesses de Macau	Conservatism
Macau interests	Right-wing	Diamantino
Ferreira	0.0%
Independent}};"		Ind.	Independent
Independente	Various PPD members

Seat changes

On 9 December 1975, a total of 21 PPD MPs, including the party's caucus leader, Carlos Mota Pinto, leave the party and become Independents, following deep disagreements with the party leader, Francisco Sá Carneiro, regarding the ideology and policies of the party.

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance	English translation	Refs
Socialist Party (Portugal)}}"	PS	« Queremos e podemos reconstruir o país »	"We want and we can rebuild the country"
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)}}"	PPD	« Portugal com Sá Carneiro »	"Portugal with Sá Carneiro"
Portuguese Communist Party}}"	PCP	« Para uma maioria de esquerda »	"For a left-wing majority"
CDS – People's Party}}"	CDS	« A resposta é muito simples »	"The answer is very simple"

Candidates' debates

The day after the elections, a round table was held on RTP1, moderated by Carlos Veiga Pereira, on the electoral results, with the participation of Mário Soares (Socialist Party), Francisco Sá Carneiro, (Social Democratic Party), Diogo Freitas do Amaral (Social Democratic Center), and Filipe Faria (UDP). Álvaro Cunhal (Portuguese Communist Party) declined to participate in the roundtable.

1975 Portuguese Constituent Assembly election	Date	Organisers	Moderator(s)	Present Absent invitee Non-invitee	PS	PPD	CDS	PCP	UDP	Refs	Socialist Party (Portugal)}};"		Social Democratic Party (Portugal)}};"		CDS – People's Party}};"		Portuguese Communist Party}};"		Left Bloc (Portugal)}};"
26 Apr	RTP1	Carlos Veiga Pereira	Soares	Sá Carneiro	Freitas	A	Faria	date=26 April 1976	url=https://arquivos.rtp.pt/conteudos/legislativas-76-mesa-redonda/	title=Legislativas 76: Mesa Redonda	language=pt	work=RTP Arquivos	access-date=5 February 2022}}

Results

National summary

Distribution by constituency

12.1
1.5
-
2
-
30.8
5
6
22.5
4
3.7
-
0.9
-
15
-
32.0
2
8.2
-
4.2
-
4
2.2
-
6
-
6
28.6
5
21.2
4
4.2
-
1.0
-
15
-
22.6
1
2
28.3
2
2.7
-
0.8
-
5
-
3
22.6
2
19.9
2
6.7
-
1.1
-
7
-
6
26.7
4
12.5
1
7.3
1
1.2
-
12
-
30.3
2
9.2
-
8.0
-
4
2.6
-
6
-
6
19.3
2
6.8
-
14.5
1
2.6
-
9
-
24.9
1
4
13.3
1
1.5
-
1.3
-
6
-
25.2
2
25.7
2
2
2.9
-
1.1
-
6
-
34.2
-
1
4.3
-
1.5
-
1
-
31.1
4
4
19.4
2
7.3
1
1.0
-
11
-
25
16.4
10
13.2
8
21.8
14
2.6
1
58
-
35.4
1
2
11.8
-
1.5
-
3
-
3
10.1
-
13.9
-
22.0
1
1.0
-
4
-
18
27.0
11
15.7
6
8.4
3
1.5
-
38
-
6
19.5
3
13.9
2
16.1
2
1.7
-
13
-
32.2
7
8.4
1
4.4
-
9
2.8
-
17
-
25.5
2
3
23.5
2
6.6
-
0.9
-
7
-
26.3
2
4
18.3
1
3.1
-
0.9
-
7
-
23.0
3
4
31.2
4
2.3
-
0.9
-
11
-
1
32.2
1
6.9
-
10.1
-
0.8
-
2
-
6.3
-
1
33.7
1
1.4
-
0.4
-
2
-
- class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9"
107
24.4
73
16.0
42
14.4
40
1.7
1
263
-
}

5 largest municipalities

82.8
(81,879)
26.0
(54,892)
16.4
(34,583)
12.0
(25,418)
2.5
(5,239)
1.9
(3,968)
88.2
-
(61,860)
14.4
(22,982)
10.6
(16,899)
26.6
(42,330)
3.1
(4,918)
3.9
(6,230)
83.5
-
(55,380)
11.8
(15,754)
7.2
(9,669)
29.2
(39,028)
2.4
(3,183)
4.6
(6,173)
84.6
-
(58,165)
25.5
(31,978)
11.8
(14,862)
9.0
(11,227)
1.4
(1,756)
2.0
(2,501)
89.5
}

Highest and lowest by party

|- class="unsortable" ! colspan="2" class="wikitable sortable" style="width:140px;" | Party ! Highest ! Lowest |- (56.0) (4.7) |- (84.2) (4.1) |- (50.5) (1.2) |- (61.8) (0.3) |- (7.4) (0.2) |}

Maps

File:1976 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg|Winner and seats by constituency. File:Legislativas portuguesas de 1976 (Mapa).png|Most voted political force by municipality.

Aftermath

Fall of the government

By the fall of 1977, the situation of the Portuguese economy was deteriorating. During that year's summer, Prime Minister Mário Soares asked for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several austerity measures were implemented like the rise of interest rates, the devalue of the Escudo and budget cuts. However, the policies were quite unpopular and by late 1977 Soares was facing large opposition in the Parliament. In November 1977, he proposed a sizeable memorandum between parties and associations to seek common economic and social policies, which was rejected. Because of this rejection, Soares presented a motion of confidence in Parliament, which he lost by a 59 vote margin.

Ballot →	8 December 1977	Required majority →	Result →
Simple
{{Collapsible list	title = Yes	• PS (100)
{{Collapsible list	title = No	• PSD (72)	• CDS (41)	• PCP (40)
Abstentions
{{Collapsible list	title = Absentees	• PS (2)	• PSD (1)	• Ind. Carlos Galvão de Melo (1)
Rejected
Sources

Following this vote, Soares was still able to form a second cabinet, in coalition with the Democratic Social Center (CDS), but it only lasted 8 months and after August 1978, a series of Presidential appointed cabinets were nominated which culminated in the 2 December 1979 snap election.

Notes

| Portuguese Democratic Movement won 5 seats and the Independent Democratic Association of Macau won 1 seat in the 1975 election. Neither party contested this election.

References

(10 January 2017). "Mário Soares e o "socialismo na gaveta"". TSF Rádio Notícias.
"Quando o PS desceu à rua". [[Público (Portugal).
"Caso "República"". [[Rádio e Televisão de Portugal.
"Nacionalizações de 1975". [[Rádio e Televisão de Portugal.
"Portugal, o Verão Quente de 1975 visto pela CIA". [[Sábado]].
"O comício da Alameda feito em aliança com a Igreja para combater o PCP". [[Jornal i]].
"O Norte a ferro e fogo". [[Correio da Manhã (Portugal).
"Mas quem é este Vasco Gonçalves?". [[Expresso (newspaper).
"25 de Abril: O assalto à embaixada espanhola e o impacto da revolução no ambiente em Espanha". [[Expresso (newspaper).
"Governo em greve". [[Rádio e Televisão de Portugal.
"O cerco ao Palácio de São Bento (12/13 de novembro)". [[Assembly of the Republic (Portugal).
"Toda a história do 25 de Novembro, a "dramática aventura" que ditou o fim da Revolução". [[Expresso (newspaper).
"Constituição da República Portuguesa". [[Assembly of the Republic (Portugal).
"Constitution of the Portuguese Republic".
"Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin.
Gallaher, Michael (1992). "[https://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/staff/michael_gallagher/BJPS1992.pdf Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities]"
"Eleição da Assembleia da República de 25 de Abril de 1976". CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - Eleição da Assembleia da República de 25 de Abril de 1976.
(9 September 2018). "Quando as divergências políticas acabavam em cisão no PSD".
(9 September 2018). "Sociais-democratas batem de frente contra Sá Carneiro".
"Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)". Francisco Teixeira.
"ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1983 – PSD". EPHEMERA.
"Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)". Francisco Teixeira.
"Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)". Francisco Teixeira.
(26 April 1976). "Legislativas 76: Mesa Redonda". RTP Arquivos.
"1º Programa de Assistência Económico-Financeira do FMI a Portugal". Observatório Nacional de Luta contra a Pobreza.
(25 August 1977). "Comunicação ao país do Primeiro-ministro Mário Soares". RTP.
(25 August 1977). "Mário Soares". Museu da Presidência da Republica.
(8 December 1977). "Queda do I Governo Constitucional". RTP.
(10 November 2015). "MOÇÕES / CENSURA - CONFIANÇA - REJEIÇÃO DO PROGRAMA". [[Assembly of the Republic (Portugal).
"Debates Parlamentares". [[Assembly of the Republic (Portugal).
(25 August 1977). "Mário Soares exonerado por Ramalho Eanes da liderança do II Governo Constitucional". RTP.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

legislative-elections-in-portugal 1976-elections-in-portugal april-1976-in-europe

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1976 Portuguese legislative election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report