1983 Portuguese legislative election
25 April 1983
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
125 seats needed for a majority
Registered7,337,064 Increase2.2%
Turnout5,707,695 (77.8%)
Decrease6.1 pp
  First party Second party
 
PSD
Leader Mário Soares Carlos Mota Pinto
Party PS PSD
Leader since 19 April 1973 presumptive
Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Coimbra[2]
Last election 66 seats, 27.8%[lower-alpha 1] 82 seats
Seats won 101 75
Seat change Increase 35 Decrease 7
Popular vote 2,061,309 1,554,804
Percentage 36.1% 27.2%
Swing Increase 8.3 pp [lower-alpha 2]
  Third party Fourth party
 
CDS
Leader Álvaro Cunhal Lucas Pires
Party PCP CDS
Alliance APU
Leader since 14 April 1978 20 February 1983
Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon
Last election 41 seats, 16.8% 46 seats
Seats won 44 30
Seat change Increase 3 Decrease 16
Popular vote 1,031,609 716,705
Percentage 18.1% 12.6%
Swing Increase 1.3 pp [lower-alpha 2]
Prime Minister before election

Francisco Pinto Balsemão
PSD

 Prime Minister after election

Mário Soares
PS

The 1983 Portuguese legislative election took place on 25 April. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

The last election, in October 1980 had been won by a right-wing coalition, the Democratic Alliance (AD) and Francisco Sá Carneiro had retained office as Prime Minister with an increased majority.

However, Sá Carneiro, along with other important members of the coalition, died in an aircrash only two months after the election, on 4 December 1980. Such happenings caused a massive political instability and Francisco Pinto Balsemão, a senior official of the Social Democratic Party, the largest party in the Alliance, became Prime Minister. However, Balsemão's governments were very unstable and after the 1982 local elections results, he resigned as Prime Minister. The Social Democratic Party proposed possible names for Prime Minister to President of Portugal António Ramalho Eanes, but the President refused them and decided to call a snap election for April 1983.

The election was won by the Socialist Party with 36%, and Mário Soares was nominated Prime Minister. However, the Socialists lacked a majority in the Assembly of the Republic and were forced to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, which achieved 27%, in what was called the "Central Bloc". Although this coalition allowed Soares to govern, several members of both parties were against it, and internal attacks led to the collapse of the coalition after less than two years. In the election that followed, the Communist-dominated United People Alliance lost 3 MPs and the Democratic and Social Center, after the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance, was now alone in the Parliament with 30 MPs, a loss of 16. The election marked the beginning of a process of bi-polarization of Portuguese politics.

This was the last legislative election to be won by the Socialist Party until 1995.

Background

In October 1980, the Democratic Alliance (AD), led by Francisco Sá Carneiro, was reelected with reinforced majority but it was cut short with the death of Sá Carneiro, his partner Snu Abecassis, his Defense minister Adelino Amaro da Costa and his wife, plus other crew members, in a tragic plane crash in Camarate, Loures, shortly after taking off from the main runway of Lisbon Airport.[3] This tragic air crash sparked a series of conspirancy theories, mainly because of Portugal's involvement in the Iran–Iraq War and the supply of weapons to both Iraq and Iran.[4]

Following the death of Sá Carneiro, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, CDS leader, became interim Prime Minister until the election of a new PSD leader. In January 1981, the PSD elected Francisco Pinto Balsemão as leader and he became Prime Minister.[5]

Fall of the government

Pinto Balsemão had a lot of problems in leading the government, as he lacked support from many senior members of his party, like Aníbal Cavaco Silva, former Finance minister under Sá Carneiro, and several ministers also resigned. Moreover, the right-wing policy was criticized by the left-wing and by the trade unions, and in February 1982, the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers, with the support of the Communists, called for a general strike that shook the government. The wave of resignations among Balsemão's ministers continued and by the end of 1982, and also influenced by the AD's bad results in the 1982 local elections, Balsemão himself also resigned.

The Social Democratic Party proposed, to President Ramalho Eanes, a government led by Vítor Crespo, but President Eanes rejects the proposal citing that the political conditions were just too deteriorated, thus he decided to dissolve the Parliament and call an election for April.[6] Shortly after, the AD was dissolved as PSD, CDS and PPM decided to contest by their own the April snap election.

Leadership changes and challenges

CDS 1983 leadership election

After the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance (AD), Diogo Freitas do Amaral resigned from the party's leadership, and a new congress to elect a new leader was called.[7] Two candidates were on the ballot, Francisco Lucas Pires and Luís Barbosa, with Lucas Pires being elected as new party leader.[8]

Ballot: 20 February 1983
Candidate Votes %
Francisco Lucas Pires WIN
Luís Barbosa
Turnout
Source:

PSD 1983 nomination selection

Just like CDS, after the collapse of the AD coalition, the then PSD leader Francisco Pinto Balsemão announces he would not run for the leadership of the party.[9] Shortly after, Carlos Mota Pinto is selected by the PSD as the party's candidate for Prime Minister.[10]

Ballot: 27 February 1983
Candidate Votes %
Carlos Mota Pinto 100.0
Turnout
Source:

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.[11]

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[12] 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.[13]

For these elections, and compared with the 1980 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[14]

DistrictNumber of MPsMap
Lisbon56
Porto38
Setúbal17
Braga(+1)16
Aveiro15
Santarém12
Leiria and Coimbra(–1)11
Viseu10
Faro9
Castelo Branco, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real6
Azores, Beja, Évora, Guarda and Madeira5
Bragança and Portalegre4
Europe and Outside Europe2

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 2nd legislature (1980–1983) and that also contested the elections:

Name Ideology Political position Leader 1980 result[15]
 % Seats
PPD/PSD Social Democratic Party
Partido Social Democrata		 Liberalism Centre Carlos Mota Pinto 47.6%[lower-alpha 2]
82 / 250
CDS Democratic and Social Center
Centro Democrático e Social		 Right-wing liberalism
Neoliberalism		 Centre-right
to right-wing		 Francisco Lucas Pires
46 / 250
PPM People's Monarchist Party
Partido Popular Monárquico		 Monarchism
Green conservatism		 Right-wing Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles
6 / 250
PS Socialist Party
Partido Socialista		 Social democracy Centre-left Mário Soares 27.8%[lower-alpha 1]
66 / 250
UEDS Left-wing Union for the Socialist Democracy
União da Esquerda para a Democracia Socialista		 Democratic Socialism
Workers' self-management		 Left-wing António Lopes Cardoso
4 / 250
ASDI Independent Social-Democratic Action
Acção Social Democrata Independente		 Democratic Socialism
Social democracy		 Centre-left António de Sousa Franco
4 / 250
PCP Portuguese Communist Party
Partido Comunista Português		 Communism
Marxism–Leninism		 Far-left Álvaro Cunhal 16.8%[lower-alpha 3]
39 / 250
MDP/CDE Portuguese Democratic Movement
Movimento Democrático Português		 Left-wing nationalism
Democratic socialism		 Left-wing José Manuel Tengarrinha
2 / 250
UDP Popular Democratic Union
União Democrática Popular		 Marxism
Socialism		 Left-wing Mário Tomé 1.4%
1 / 250

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Refs
PSD « Firmeza na decisão. Competência na acção. » "Firmness in the decision. Competence in action." [16]
PS « Juntos vamos conseguir » "Together we will do it" [17]
CDS « O nosso caminho é Portugal » "Our path is Portugal" [18]
APU « Vota APU, A solução! » "Vote APU, The Solution!" [19]

Candidates' debates

1983 Portuguese legislative election debates
Date Organisers Moderator(s)     P  Present    A  Absent invitee  N  Non-invitee 
PSD
Pinto		 PS
Soares		 CDS
Pires		 APU
Cunhal		 Refs
23 Mar Antena 1 P P P P [20]
31 Mar RTP1 P P P P [21]

Opinion polling

  Exit poll/Forecast

Date Released Polling Firm PSD PS CDS APU Others Lead
25 Apr 1983 Election Results 27.2 36.1 12.6 18.1 6.0 8.9
25 Apr 1983 RTP (23:15) 25.4–27.7
69/72		 36.0–39.1
98/104		 11.5–12.0
27/30		 17.2–18.5
42/46		 – 10.6
11.4
25 Apr 1983 RTP (20:30) 22.0–25.5
65/72		 36.0–38.5
94/102		 12.0–14.5
35/40		 16.5–19.0
42/46		 – 13.0
14.0
Apr 1983 Tempo 24.0 38.0 12.5 17.0 8.5 14.0

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 25 April 1983 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties Votes % ± Seats MPs %/
votes %
1980 1983 ± % ±
Socialist[lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 1] 2,061,30936.11Increase8.466101Increase3540.40Increase10.81.12
Social Democratic[lower-alpha 2] 1,554,80427.24—8275Decrease730.00Decrease2.81.10
United People Alliance[lower-alpha 3] 1,031,60918.07Increase1.34144Increase317.60Increase1.20.97
Democratic and Social Centre[lower-alpha 2] 716,70512.56—4630Decrease1612.00Decrease6.40.96
Christian Democratic 39,1800.69——0—0.00—0.0
People's Monarchist[lower-alpha 2] 27,6350.48—60Decrease60.00Decrease2.40.0
People's Democratic Union 27,2600.48Decrease0.910Decrease10.00Decrease0.40.0
People's Democratic Union / PSR 25,2220.44——0—0.00—0.0
Portuguese Workers' Communist 20,9950.37Decrease0.200Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 19,6570.34Decrease1.100Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Revolutionary Socialist 13,3270.23Decrease0.800Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Socialist Workers League 11,5000.20——0—0.00—0.0
OCMLP 6,1130.11Increase0.000Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Democratic Party of the Atlantic 5,5230.10Decrease0.000Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Communist Party (Reconstructed)[lower-alpha 5] 860.00——0—0.00—0.0
Total valid 5,560,925 97.43 Decrease0.3 250 250 Steady0 100.00 Steady0.0 —
Blank ballots 42,4940.74Increase0.1
Invalid ballots 104,2761.83Increase0.1
Total 5,707,695 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 7,337,06477.79Decrease6.1
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Mapa oficial. D.R. n.º 121, Suplemento, Série I de 1983-05-26
Vote share
PS
 
 36.11%
PSD
 
 27.24%
APU
 
 18.07%
CDS
 
 12.56%
PDC
 
 0.69%
Others
 
 2.75%
Blank/Invalid
 
 2.57%
Parliamentary seats
PS
 
 40.40%
PSD
 
 30.00%
APU
 
 17.60%
CDS
 
 12.00%

Distribution by constituency

Results of the 1983 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the
Republic by constituency
Constituency%S%S%S%S Total
S
PS PSD APU CDS
Azores 31.1 2 54.4 3 3.1 - 4.7 - 5
Aveiro 36.6 6 34.8 6 7.0 1 16.4 2 15
Beja 28.0 2 11.8 - 49.4 3 4.1 - 5
Braga 39.7 7 27.0 5 8.8 1 18.3 3 16
Bragança 30.4 1 35.8 2 4.8 - 20.9 1 4
Castelo Branco 37.1 3 30.6 2 11.3 - 13.2 1 6
Coimbra 45.3 6 27.8 3 10.7 1 10.2 1 11
Évora 23.9 1 18.6 1 47.6 3 4.5 - 5
Faro 43.2 5 23.1 2 18.6 2 7.4 - 9
Guarda 33.5 2 31.5 2 4.9 - 23.8 1 5
Leiria 32.7 4 35.6 4 9.5 1 16.2 2 11
Lisbon 35.8 21 21.8 13 25.3 15 11.7 7 56
Madeira 24.4 1 56.2 4 2.8 - 8.2 - 5
Portalegre 38.5 2 19.1 1 28.7 1 7.5 - 4
Porto 43.0 18 26.2 10 13.6 5 12.5 5 38
Santarém 38.4 5 24.7 3 20.0 3 10.0 1 12
Setúbal 30.6 6 12.7 2 45.8 8 5.1 1 17
Viana do Castelo 32.5 2 32.6 3 9.9 - 18.4 1 6
Vila Real 32.3 2 42.0 3 5.4 - 12.7 1 6
Viseu 30.9 4 36.6 4 4.6 - 20.7 2 10
Europe 33.6 1 31.2 1 17.1 - 11.1 - 2
Outside Europe 7.0 - 48.2 1 2.8 - 34.1 1 2
Total 36.1 101 27.2 75 18.1 44 12.6 30 250
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Aftermath

Fall of the government

The Central Bloc government had become deeply unpopular by 1984, with the consequences of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to save public finances and the economy hitting hard on the population.[22] The budget cuts and increasing poverty were creating deep disagreements between PS and PSD, but also within both parties rifts were being formed. In the Social Democrats, these rifts came to a breaking point in February 1985 with party leader Carlos Mota Pinto resigning and announcing he would contest the next leadership ballot.[23] But, Mota Pinto died unexpectedly just days prior to the 1985 PSD congress and Aníbal Cavaco Silva, which was against the Central Bloc, was elected as leader.[24] Shortly after his election as party leader, Cavaco Silva withdraws the PSD support to the Central Bloc, and the government falls. President Ramalho Eanes decides to dissolve Parliament and call a snap election for 6 October 1985.[25]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 The Socialist Party (PS), the Left-wing Union for the Socialist Democracy (UEDS) and the Independent Social-Democratic Action (ASDI) contested the 1980 election in a coalition called Republican and Socialist Front (FRS) and won a combined 27.8% of the vote and elected 74 MPs to parliament.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Democratic Social Center (CDS) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM) contested the 1980 election in a coalition called Democratic Alliance (AD) and won a combined 47.6% of the vote and elected 134 MPs to parliament.
  3. 1 2 The Portuguese Communist Party (41 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (3 MPs) ran in coalition.
  4. ↑ The Socialist Party (PS) results are compared to the combined total share of the vote from the Republican and Socialist Front and from the 66 seats elected by the PS, within the coalition, in the 1980 election.
  5. ↑ The Communist Party (Reconstructed) list only in Europe and Rest of the World.

References

  1. ↑ Fundação Mário Soares
  2. ↑ Diário da Républica, 26 de Maio de 1983 - Lista de candidatos eleitos
  3. ↑ "Sá Carneiro morre em acidente de aviação" (in Portuguese). RTP. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  4. ↑ "Atentado de Camarate. Familiar de vítima acusa republicanos dos EUA" (in Portuguese). RTP. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "Tomada de posse do VII Governo Constitucional" (in Portuguese). RTP. 9 January 1981. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  6. ↑ "Presidente da República dissolve Assembleia da República, em 1983 ", RTP, 8 September 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  7. ↑ "História CDS", CDS-PP. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  8. ↑ "Do CDS ao CDS-PP: o Partido do Centro Democrático Social e o seu papel na política portuguesa", Richard A. H. Robinson, 1996. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  9. ↑ "Declarações de Pinto Balsemão", RTP, 8 February 1983. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  10. ↑ "PSD Carlos Mota Pinto", PSD. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  11. ↑ "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  12. ↑ "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  13. ↑ Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
  14. ↑ "Eleição da Assembleia da República de 25 de Abril de 1983". CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - Eleição da Assembleia da República de 25 de Abril de 1983. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  15. ↑ Composição dos Grupos Parlamentares/Partidos
  16. ↑ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1983 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  17. ↑ "Evolução da Comunicação Política e Eleitoral em Portugal" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  18. ↑ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1985 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  19. ↑ "Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)" (PDF). Francisco Teixeira (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  20. ↑ "Debate entre líderes partidários na RDP". RTP (in Portuguese). 1983. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  21. ↑ "Corpo a corpo esta noite na RTP". Fundação Mário Soares (in Portuguese). 1983. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  22. ↑ "A crise económica que levou Portugal a provar pela primeira vez a receita do FMI" (in Portuguese). Público. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  23. ↑ "Mota Pinto, o aliado de Soares que militava no PPD" (in Portuguese). Público. 15 January 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  24. ↑ "19 de Maio de 1985: O líder inesperado" (in Portuguese). Expresso. 17 May 2009. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  25. ↑ "19 de Maio de 1985: O líder inesperado" (in Portuguese). Expresso. 12 January 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

See also

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