The 2023 Portuguese Socialist Party leadership election was held on 15 and 16 December 2023. The leadership ballot was called after Prime Minister and Socialist Party Secretary-General

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa GCIH (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician serving as the 119th and current prime minister of Portugal since 26 November 2015, presiding over the XXI (2015–2019), XXII (2019–2022) and ...

resigned from office on 7 November 2023. The winner of this election led the Socialist Party into the 2024 legislative election. The declared candidates included the former Infrastructure and Housing Minister

Pedro Nuno Santos Pedro Nuno de Oliveira Santos (born 13 April 1977) is a Portuguese economist and politician, who is the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party. Santos previously held positions in the Portuguese Government under António Costa, first as Secre ...

, who represented the leftist faction of the party and wants to build upon the legacy of

, Internal Administration Minister José Luís Carneiro, who represented the moderate faction and a continuation of Costism, and Daniel Adrião, a longtime critic of Costa as Secretary-General, who represented a rupture. Even with the candidates claiming the contrary, this leadership election was viewed as another ideological dispute to decide what direction the party and the country should take, similar to the leadership elections of

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

between Costa and Seguro, of

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

between José Sócrates and

Manuel Alegre Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte, GCL (born 12 May 1936) is a Portuguese poet and politician, member of the Socialist Party, and a candidate for the 2006 Portuguese presidential election. He ran again in the 2011 presidential election, this time bac ...

and of

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

between

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ( , ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socia ...

and Jorge Sampaio. With a turnout rate of around 70%, Pedro Nuno Santos was elected as the new Secretary-General of the Socialist Party with almost 61% of the votes, against the 37% of José Luís Carneiro. Daniel Adrião polled below 1%.

Candidates

Declared

Declined

Ana Catarina Mendes Ana Catarina Mendes (born 1973) is a Portuguese politician. As a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) she has been a deputy in the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic since 1995 and, from 2019, led the party in the National Assembly. I ...

– Minister of Parliamentary Affairs (2022–2024) * António José Seguro – former Secretary-general of the Socialist Party (2011–2014) *

Fernando Medina Fernando Medina Maciel Almeida Correia (born 10 March 1973) is a Portuguese economist and politician Socialist Party (PS) who has been serving as Minister of Finance in the government of Prime Minister António Costa since 2022. He previously ...

– Minister of Finance (2022–2024); former Mayor of Lisbon (2015–2021) ''(endorsed José Luís Carneiro)'' *

Francisco Assis Francisco José Pereira de Assis Miranda (born 8 January 1965, in Amarante) is a Portuguese politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Socialist Party; part of the Party of European Socialists from 2004 to 2009, ...

– former

MEP MEP may refer to: Organisations and politics * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, a political party in Sri Lanka * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (1956), a former political alliance in Sri Lanka * Maison européenne de la photographie, a photography centre ...

of the Socialist Party (PS) (2004–2009; 2014–2019); former mayor of Amarante (1990–1995) ''(endorsed Pedro Nuno Santos)'' *

Mariana Vieira da Silva Mariana Guimarães Vieira da Silva (born 8 May 1978) is a Portuguese sociologist and politician who currently serves as Minister of the Presidency in António Costa's XXIII Constitutional Government, effectively No. 2 in the government. Biogr ...

– Minister of the Presidency (2019–2024) *

Marta Temido Marta Alexandra Fartura Braga Temido de Almeida Simões (born 2 March 1974) is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Health under Prime Minister António Costa, between 15 October 2018 and 10 September 2022. She has submitted her resig ...

– former Minister of Health (2018–2022); chair of the

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Socialist Party (since 2023) *

Mário Centeno Mário José Gomes de Freitas Centeno (born 9 December 1966) is a Portuguese economist, university professor, and politician. From 2015 to 2020, he was Minister of Finance of Portugal in the government cabinet of Prime Minister António Costa of ...

– governor of the Bank of Portugal (since 2020); former

President of the Eurogroup The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 19 member ...

(2018–2020); former Minister of Finance (2015–2020)

Notable endorsements

Campaign period

Candidates' slogans

Candidates' debates

José Luís Carneiro and Daniel Adrião proposed a series of debates between the candidates, but Pedro Nuno Santos refused to participate in any debate. Therefore, no debates between the candidates to the leadership were held.

Opinion polling

All voters

PS voters

All voters PS voters

Results

National summary

Results by party federation

The following table shows a breakdown of the results of the election by party federation, which are mostly equal to the electoral circles.

Notes

References

External links

PS Official website
{{PS Leadership Elections Socialist Party (Portugal) Political party leadership elections in Portugal 2023 in Portugal