This weekend the Algarve once again delivered a small victory to André Ventura, this time in Sunday’s presidential election, held on 18th January. The leader of the populist Chega party won in more of the region’s municipalities than the Socialist Party (PS) national frontrunner António José Seguro, who he will face in the second round of voting on 8th February.
After emerging as the region’s most voted party in both the 2024 and 2025 legislative elections, Ventura’s Chega party became the preferred presidential candidate of Algarve voters.
Five years ago, back in 2021, Ventura ran for president in a race that he came far from winning at a national level. However, in that election, he still finished second in the Algarve with 26,023 votes, behind the current president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
This time, Ventura more than doubled his previous tally, reaching 70,148 votes and effectively winning the election in the Algarve, but not at a national level. The controversial politician topped the poll in nine of the region’s sixteen municipalities: Lagos, Portimão, Lagoa, Silves, Albufeira, Loulé, Olhão, Castro Marim, and Vila Real de Santo António.
Once again, it was largely the coastal municipalities of the Algarve that handed him a symbolic regional victory, with places such as Portimão, Loulé, Albufeira and Olhão being some of the Algarve’s most populous municipalities.
In Albufeira, a municipality led by a Chega mayor voted in just last year, Rui Cristina, the victory was almost overwhelming, with Ventura collecting 7,278 votes (38.75%) on Sunday, well ahead of António José Seguro’s 4,238 votes (22.80%).
Faro, however, remains a curious exception, practically a Socialist Party stronghold: Chega has never won an election in the district capital. On Sunday, the victory there went to António José Seguro, with 30.33% of the vote, followed by Ventura on 25.66%.
Elsewhere, Seguro, who emerged with no doubt as the most voted candidate nationwide – as polls had predicted – won in seven Algarve municipalities: Aljezur, Vila do Bispo, Monchique, Faro, São Brás de Alportel, Tavira, and Alcoutim.
Seguro’s strongest Algarve result was in Alcoutim, where he secured close to 41% of the vote. Compared with the 2025 legislative elections, the Socialist Party, managed to recover around 10,000 votes in the Algarve. Just last year the Socialists had obtained 47,293 votes in the legislative election for prime-minister, whereas its backed presidential candidate collected 57,217 votes this weekend.
Additionally, Sunday’s presidential election featured a candidate who hails from the Algarve, something that had not happened since 2011, during former president Cavaco Silva’s re-election. Humberto Correia had attempted to run before, but only this time succeeded in pushing past the threshold of the required signatures to appear on the ballot paper, although, as expected, his result was negligible.
The Olhão-born candidate, who made headlines for campaigning across the country dressed as the iconic 12-century Portuguese king D. Afonso Henriques, finished last in his home region, collecting just 368 votes (0.17%). Regrettably, even fringe and satirical candidates such as André Pestana and Manuel João Vieira outperformed him.
What is certain is that, for only the second time in Portugal's history since becoming a democracy in 1974, the country will face a second round in the presidential election.The last instance of such being in 1986, when two ends of the left and the right, symbolised by candidates Soares and Freitas, went a head-to-head in a battle not dissimilar to that which is to be fought between Seguro and Ventura on the 8th February.
Chega’s leader and presidential candidate, André Ventura, said on Sunday that he would only lose the second round of the presidential election “because of the selfishness of the PSD, the Liberal Initiative, or other parties that claim to be right-wing”, but have failed to offer him an endorsement in his second round, he said at the Marriott Hotel in Lisbon, speaking to an audience of more than 300 supporters.
The Chega leader argued that the results showed his candidacy would now “lead the non-socialist political space in Portugal”.
He also claimed that “the country has awakened” following the vote and that voters had entrusted him with the alternative to what he described as a “destructive” Socialism.
“The right has fragmented as never before, but the Portuguese have given us leadership of that right in Portugal,” he concluded.
Source: LUSA / Sul Informação
