The Socialist Party ( , PS) is a

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel by militants who were at the time with the Portuguese Socialist Action (). The PS is a member of the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...

Progressive Alliance The Progressive Alliance (PA) is a political international of progressive and social democratic political parties and organisations founded on 22 May 2013 in Leipzig, Germany. The alliance was formed as an alternative to the existing Socia ...

and

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a Social democracy, social democratic European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all the European Economic Area, European economic area states (EEA) plus the Unit ...

, and has eight members in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

within the

Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the Political groups of the European Parliament, political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and ...

group during the 10th European Parliament. The party won the 1976 general election and formed the first constitutional government after the 1974 revolution, with

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portugal, Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the List of Presidents of P ...

as prime minister. However, the government was unstable and fell in 1978. The PS lost the 1979 election, but returned to power in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, forming, with the Social Democratic Party, a Central Bloc coalition. It lasted two years and in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

, the party was defeated and went back to opposition, remaining there for 10 years and losing the two following general elections. Under

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

, the party won the 1995 general election and returned to power, lasting until

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, upon the resignation of Guterres. The party made a comeback and won a historic

absolute majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the " Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. For example, if a gr ...

in the 2005 general election under the leadership of José Sócrates. By 2011, the economic crisis led the party to lose the 2011 snap election and the party returned to the opposition. Despite losing the 2015 election, the party formed an agreement with the Left Bloc and the

Unitary Democratic Coalition The Unitary Democratic Coalition (, CDU) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party () and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV). The coalition also integrates ...

and managed to appoint

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as President of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and th ...

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. Costa remained in office for 9 years, until 2024, and during his term won two elections, the last one, in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, with an absolute majority. After Costa's resignation, the party narrowly lost the 2024 election, thus, returning to opposition. The party again lost the 2025 election by a larger margin and even fell to third place in Parliament. A party of the

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

, the PS is one of the three

major parties A major party is a political party that holds substantial influence in a country's politics, standing in contrast to a minor party. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Major parties hold a significant percentage of the vote in election ...

in Portuguese politics; its rivals being the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(PSD), a

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

party, and Chega (CH), a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

party. After June 2025, the party's leader is set to be José Luís Carneiro.

History

Portuguese Socialist Action (1964–1973)

The Portuguese Socialist Action (ASP) was founded in November 1964, in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, by

, Manuel Tito de Morais and Francisco Ramos da Costa. The ASP was founded in exile by several Socialist members as political organizations during Salazar's Estado Novo regime were forbidden. In 1964, Mário Soares was elected leader of the ASP and the core principles and values of the ASP were approved. Inspired by

May 68 May 68 () was a period of widespread protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France that began in May 1968 and became one of the most significant social uprisings in modern European history. Initially sparked by student demonstrations agains ...

events, the Socialist Party (PS) was created at a conference of the Portuguese Socialist Action (ASP) on 19 April 1973, in Bad Münstereifel in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Option ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , , align=left , In favour of a party , align=right , 20 , align=right , 74.1 , - , , align=left , Against a party , align=right , 7 , align=right , 25.9 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 27 , align=right , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source: The twenty-seven delegates decided to found a party of

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

political freedom Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency) is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies.Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?", ''Between Past and ...

, making an explicit reference to a

classless society A classless society is a society in which no one is born into a social class like in a class society. Distinctions of wealth, income, education, culture, or social network might arise and would only be determined by individual experience an ...

and with

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

as a source of principal inspiration. However, seven delegates voted against the idea of creating a party, including Mário Soares' wife Maria Barroso.

Socialist Party (1973–present)

On 25 April 1974, the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

brought down the authoritarian regime of the Estado Novo, established in 1933, and democracy was restored. Mário Soares, the party's General-Secretary, returned to Portugal after being in exile in France and became

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

, and António de Almeida Santos was appointed Minister of Interjurisdictional Coordination in one of the first provisional governments. After the revolution, elections were called for 25 April 1975 and the PS won the 1975 election for the Constituent Assembly and the 1976 elections for the National Assembly, then losing to the Democratic Alliance (AD) in the 1979 legislative election. In 1980, the PS made an electoral alliance, called the Republican and Socialist Front (FRS), between the Independent Social Democrats (ASDI), led by Sousa Franco, and the Left-wing Union for the Socialist Democracy (UEDS), led by Lopes Cardoso. The alliance failed to defeat the AD. They won the 1983 general election but without an

, and the PS formed a

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

with the centre-right

(PSD), creating a Central Bloc. The new government began negotiations for Portugal to enter the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

(EEC). In 1985, the Central Block broke down and the PS, at the time led by António de Almeida Santos, lost the 1985 legislative election. Cavaco Silva's PSD won the 1985 elections, and again in 1987 and 1991 with an absolute majority. The PS was in opposition for more than ten years. In the 1995 legislative election, the PS, then led by the already prominent

, won a general election for the first time in twelve years, and in the 1999 election failed to obtain what would have been a historic

for the party by only one MP. In 2001, after a massive defeat in the 2001 local elections, Guterres resigned as prime minister and called for new elections in 2002. The Socialist Party lost the 2002 general election by a small margin to the PSD, who formed a coalition government with the People's Party (CDS–PP). During this time, it has been argued that the Socialist Party moved towards the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

and adopted the

Third Way The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...

. In the early 2000s, the party cleaned up its membership database, resulting in a reduction of registered members from 120,000 in 2001 to 77,000 in 2002. In June 2004, the PS won the 2004 European elections by a landslide, and a few weeks later, Durão Barroso, leader of the PSD and prime minister, resigned to become

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission, also known as president of the College of Commissioners is the Head of government, head of the European Commission, the Executive (government), executive branch of the European Union (EU). The president ...

. In December 2004,

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th President of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. Sampaio was a member of the Socialist Party, a party which he ...

, President of the Republic, called fresh elections for February 2005. These elections resulted in a landslide victory for the PS, winning for the first time since its foundation an absolute majority. José Sócrates, leader of the PS, became

Prime Minister of Portugal The prime minister of Portugal (; ) is the head of government of Portugal. As head of government, the prime minister coordinates the actions of ministers, represents the Government of Portugal to the other bodies of state, is accountable to Ass ...

. In 2009, after years in power, the PS lost the 2009 European Parliament elections to the PSD. However, they won the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

held on 27 September 2009 but failed to renew the absolute majority they won in the previous general election. The PS later introduced and legislated

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. The

Eurozone crisis The euro area crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis, European debt crisis, or European sovereign debt crisis, was a multi-year debt crisis and financial crisis in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until, in Greece, 2018. The ...

and financial crisis of 2011 hit Portugal very hard, prompting Sócrates' government to impose harsh

austerity measures In economic policy, austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: high ...

. On 23 March 2011, the entire opposition in Parliament said no to new measures proposed by the government. As a result of this, Sócrates resigned as prime minister and a snap election took place on 5 June 2011. In the elections, the PS suffered a huge setback, with 28.1 percent of the vote, ten points behind the PSD, who formed another coalition government with the CDS–PP. Sócrates resigned as General-Secretary on election night after the PS's worst result since 1987. On 23 July 2011, António José Seguro was elected as Sócrates' successor. Under the leadership of Seguro, the PS won the 2013 local elections making significant gains over the PSD and the Socialists again won the European elections in May 2014 but this time only just. They won 31.5 percent of the vote against almost 28% of the alliance between the PSD and CDS–PP. The result was considered quite a disappointment to many PS members and supporters and on 27 May

, the then-mayor of Lisbon announced that he would stand for the leadership of the PS. Seguro refused to call a new congress and leadership election and instead called for a

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

, to be held on 28 September, to elect the party's candidate for prime minister in the 2015 general elections. Costa, being endorsed by the left faction of the party and people like

, Ana Catarina Mendes and Pedro Nuno Santos, easily defeated Seguro, who was supported by the more moderate and centrist wing of the party, by a 67% to 31% margin. In the 2015 legislative elections, the PS polled a disappointing second place, capturing just 32 percent of the votes against the 38.6 percent of the PSD/CDS–PP electoral alliance Portugal Ahead. Despite the victory of the PSD/CDS-PP coalition, the centre-left and left-wing parties achieved a clear majority in the

Portuguese parliament The Assembly of the Republic (, ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens". Th ...

. After the second Passos Coelho cabinet fell in parliament, with the approval of a no-confidence motion, the PS forged a

confidence and supply In parliamentary system, parliamentary democracies based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply is an arrangement under which a minority government (one which does not control a majority in the legislature) receives the support of one ...

agreement with Left Bloc and

to support a PS minority government. For the first time in Portuguese democracy, the leader of the second most voted political force became prime minister. In order to avoid bankruptcy due to mounting debt, in 2017, the party, alongside the PSD, the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

, BE and the ecologist party

PEV PEV or PeV may refer to: * Ecologist Party "The Greens" (), a Portuguese eco-socialist political party * Green Ecologist Party (Chile), a Chilean eco-leftist political party * Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland (), a Protestant Christian- ...

, voted in favour of abolishing party fundraising limits, thereby opening all Portuguese parties to private political donorship, that they are not obligated to disclose. The new proposal was reluctantly approved by the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Costa led a very successful first term as prime minister with a growing economy, low unemployment, and deficit cuts. Although he led a more left-leaning PS, Costa started to shift the party back to the centre in 2018, something that a younger and more left-wing faction, led by minister Pedro Nuno Santos, contested. In the 2019 European elections, the PS won a significant victory by achieving 33.4 percent, against the 22 percent of the PSD. The PS also won the October 2019 general election with 36 percent of the votes, against the 28 percent of the PSD, but by a closer margin than expected. The Second Costa cabinet was sworn in on 26 October 2019. In October 2020, the PS lost power in the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

region after the Socialists lost their majority in the region's 2020 October elections. The PS only got 39 percent of the votes, a drop of 7 pp, and 25 seats. The right-wing parties PSD, CDS, PPM, CHEGA, and IL won a majority of one seat over the whole left wing, and a few weeks after the election, they forged a deal that led the PSD to government. , the PS is now in opposition in both autonomous regions of the country. For the 2021 Portuguese presidential election, Costa endorsed the incumbent

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa (; born 12 December 1948) is a Portuguese politician and academic who is the president of Portugal since 2016. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, though he suspended his party membership for the ...

, something that made some party members unsatisfied. Former PS MEP Ana Gomes, a critic of Costa and a member of the left faction of the party, ran for the presidency, declaring herself the candidate of

democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic ideology, economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and wor ...

and

progressivism Progressivism is a Left-right political spectrum, left-leaning political philosophy and Reformism, reform political movement, movement that seeks to advance the human condition through social reform. Adherents hold that progressivism has unive ...

, stating that she has been disappointed with the leadership of the party for not having an official candidate. With the support of the left faction of the party and some more moderate members worried about corruption, Gomes finished in a disappointing second place behind de Sousa, who had many endorsements of party leaders like Lisbon's Mayor Fernando Medina, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, and

Carlos César Carlos Manuel Martins do Vale César, Order of Christ (Portugal), GCC (born 30 October 1956) is a Portuguese politician and former President of the Regional Government of the Portugal, Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores. He currently ser ...

. The party suffered a setback in the 2021 local elections by losing several cities to the PSD. However, the main defeat was the loss of Lisbon to the PSD candidate,

Carlos Moedas Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas (born 10 August 1970) is a Portuguese civil engineer, economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (Portugal), Social Democratic Party (PSD), who is the current Mayor of Lisbon. From 2014 until 2019, Moeda ...

, who defeated Fernando Medina by a narrow 34 to 33 percent margin. After the local elections, tensions between the PS and its left-wing allies, BE and CDU, led to the rejection of the 2022 budget which forced the calling of a snap election for January 2022. Despite polls predicting a close race between the PS and PSD, the Socialists won a surprise absolute majority, only the second in their history, with 41 percent of the votes against the 29 percent of the PSD, and winning 120 (52%) of the 230 seats in the

. In November 2023, António Costa resigned as prime minister and party leader following the Operation Influencer investigation, which investigates suspected corruption activities in the awarding of contracts for the lithium and hydrogen businesses. Following Costa's decision, an early election was called for 10 March 2024. A leadership election was called for 15 and 16 December 2023, which was won by Pedro Nuno Santos with almost 61 percent of the votes. On the 10 March 2024 election, the Socialist Party was narrowly defeated by the ''Democratic Alliance'' (AD), headed by the Social Democratic Party, losing 42 seats and gathering 28 percent of the votes. Three months later, in the 2024 European Parliament elections, the Socialist Party narrowly defeated the AD coalition, by a 32 to 31 percent margin. A new election was called for May 2025, after a vote of confidence in the AD minority government was rejected, following the revelations of the ''Spinumviva'' case. The party suffered one of its worst results ever in the election, gathering just less than 23 percent of the votes and 58 seats, falling to third place in terms of seats by being surpassed by the

Chega party and losing the status of

leader of the opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

. Pedro Nuno Santos resigned and a leadership election was opened. After being the only candidate to submit a candidacy, José Luís Carneiro is set to be elected new leader in late June 2025.

Ideology and factions

The PS is a mainstream centre-left

party with many internal factions, ranging from

social liberalism Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...

and

centrism Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

. It supports

Keynesianism Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomics, macroeconomic theories and Economic model, models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongl ...

, Europeanism, and

. Like many mainstream social democratic parties, it has previously adopted a

outlook. Historically, during its first years, the party has also had

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

factions. The most notable figures of this factions include the

marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

Manuel Serra, who opposed

leadership from the left and won 44% of the votes against him, leaving the party and creating the

People's Socialist Front The People's Socialist Front or Popular Socialist Front (, FSP) was a socialist political party in Portugal, founded in 1974. It was a breakaway group from the Socialist Party (Portugal), Socialist Party. History The group was founded in Decembe ...

afterwards; as well as the MPs Carmelinda Pereira and António Aires Rodrigues, who were the most notable examples of a " trotskyist infiltration on the party", it is noted that this faction represented 25% of the delegates elected to the socialist national congress of 1976.

Election results

Assembly of the Republic

Seat share in the Portuguese legislative elections ImageSize = width:750 height:200 PlotArea = width:688 height:170 left:40 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:PS value:rgb(1,0.40,1) legend:Socialist_(PS) DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:60 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:15 start:0 PlotData = bar:Seats color:claret width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1975 color:PS from:start till:46.4 text:46.4 bar:1976 color:PS from:start till:40.7 text:40.7 bar:1979 color:PS from:start till:29.6 text:29.6 bar:1980 color:PS from:start till:26.4 text:26.4 bar:1983 color:PS from:start till:37.6 text:37.6 bar:1985 color:PS from:start till:22.8 text:22.8 bar:1987 color:PS from:start till:24.0 text:24.0 bar:1991 color:PS from:start till:31.3 text:31.3 bar:1995 color:PS from:start till:48.7 text:48.7 bar:1999 color:PS from:start till:50.0 text:50.0 bar:2002 color:PS from:start till:41.7 text:41.7 bar:2005 color:PS from:start till:52.6 text:52.6 bar:2009 color:PS from:start till:42.2 text:42.2 bar:2011 color:PS from:start till:32.2 text:32.2 bar:2015 color:PS from:start till:37.4 text:37.4 bar:2019 color:PS from:start till:47.0 text:47.0 bar:2022 color:PS from:start till:52.2 text:52.2 bar:2024 color:PS from:start till:33.9 text:33.9 bar:2025 color:PS from:start till:25.2 text:25.2

Presidential

European Parliament

Regional Assemblies

List of lead party figures

Secretaries-General

: 19 April 1973 – 29 June 1986 * António de Almeida Santos (''ad interim''): 13 June 1985 – 13 November 1985 * António Macedo (''ad interim''): 13 November 1985 – 29 June 1986 *

Vítor Constâncio Vítor Manuel Ribeiro Constâncio (born 12 October 1943) is a Portuguese economist and academic who most recently served as Vice President of the European Central Bank, from 2010 to 2018. He previously served as Minister of Finance in 1978 an ...

: 29 June 1986 – 16 January 1989 *

: 16 January 1989 – 23 February 1992 *

: 23 February 1992 – 19 January 2002 * Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues: 19 January 2002 – 27 September 2004 * José Sócrates: 27 September 2004 – 23 July 2011 * António José Seguro: 23 July 2011 – 28 September 2014 * Maria de Belém Roseira (''ad interim''): 28 September 2014 – 22 November 2014 *

: 22 November 2014 – 7 January 2024 * Pedro Nuno Santos: 7 January 2024 – 24 May 2025 *

(''ad interim''): 24 May 2025 – present *'' José Luís Carneiro'': ''28 June 2025 –''

Graphical timeline

File:Mário Soares (2003) portrait.jpg,

, founder,

(1976–1978, 1983–1985), and

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

(1986–1996). File:Antonio Guterres 1-1.jpg,

, Prime Minister from 1995 to 2002 and the 9th

Secretary-General of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

since 2017. File:Socrates2006-2t.jpg, José Sócrates, the party's Secretary-General (2004–2011) and Prime Minister (2005–2011). File:Antonio_Costa_Portrait_2024_(cropped).jpg,

, Prime Minister from 2015 to 2024 and the fourth

President of the European Council The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This Institutions of the European Union, institution comprises the college of heads of state or governme ...

since 2024.

Party presidents

* António Macedo: 19 April 1973 – 29 June 1986 * Manuel Tito de Morais: 29 June 1986 – 14 January 1989 * João Ferraz de Abreu: 14 January 1989 – 21 February 1992 * António de Almeida Santos: 21 February 1992 – 9 September 2011 * Maria de Belém Roseira: 9 September 2011 – 29 November 2014 *

: 29 November 2014 – present

Presidents of the Assembly

* Henrique de Barros: 3 June 1975 – 2 April 1976 *

Vasco da Gama Fernandes Vasco da Gama Fernandes (4 November 1908 – 9 August 1991) was a Portugal, Portuguese lawyer and politician. Career Vasco da Gama Fernandes was licensee in Law, from the faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, and became a lawyer and polit ...

: 29 July 1976 – 29 October 1978 * Teófilo Carvalho dos Santos: 30 October 1978 – 7 January 1980 * Manuel Tito de Morais: 8 June 1983 – 24 October 1984 * António de Almeida Santos: 31 October 1995 – 4 April 2002 *

Jaime Gama Jaime José de Matos da Gama (born 8 June 1947) is a Portugal, Portuguese former politician. In the Government of Portugal, Portuguese government, he served as Ministry of Internal Administration (Portugal), Minister of Internal Administration ...

: 16 March 2005 – 21 June 2011 * Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues: 23 October 2015 – 29 March 2022 * Augusto Santos Silva: 29 March 2022 – 25 March 2024

Parliamentary Leaders

* António Lopes Cardoso (Beja): 1975–1976 *

Salgado Zenha Francisco Salgado Zenha GCL (2 May 1923, Braga – 1 November 1993, Lisbon) was a Portuguese left-wing politician and lawyer. Career As a student at the University of Coimbra, he was elected president of the Academic Association of Coimbr ...

(Porto): 1976–1983 * Walter Rosa (Lisbon): 1983–1985 *José Luís Nunes (Porto): 1985–1986 * João Ferraz de Abreu (Aveiro): 1986–1987 *

(Lisbon): 1986–1988 *

(Castelo Branco): 1988–1991 *

(Lisbon): 1991–1994 * António de Almeida Santos (Porto): 1992–1993 *Jorge Lacão (Santarém): 1995–1996 * Francisco Assis (Porto): 1997–2002, 2009–2011 *

(Leiria): 2002–2003 * António José Seguro (Lisbon): 2004 * Alberto Martins (Porto): 2005–2009, 2013–2014 * Maria de Belém Roseira (Lisbon): 2011 * Carlos Zorrinho (Évora): 2011–2013 * Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues (Lisbon): 2014–2015 *

(Azores): 2015–2019 * Ana Catarina Mendes (Setúbal): 2019–2022 * Eurico Brilhante Dias (Leiria): 2022–2024 * Alexandra Leitão (Santarém): 2024 – present

Prime Ministers

: 23 July 1976 – 28 August 1978; 9 June 1983 – 6 November 1985 *

: 28 October 1995 – 6 April 2002 * José Sócrates: 12 March 2005 – 21 June 2011 *

: 26 November 2015 – 2 April 2024

Presidents of the Regional Government of the Azores

: 9 November 1996 – 6 November 2012 * Vasco Cordeiro: 6 November 2012 – 24 November 2020

Presidents of the Republic

: 9 March 1986 – 9 March 1996 *

: 9 March 1996 – 9 March 2006

Notes

References

External links

* (list in Portuguese, links to international websites in English) * (in Portuguese)
Party of European SocialistsSocialist Internacional

Political programs of the Socialist Party (Portugal) from 1973 to 2024
{{Authority control 1973 establishments in Portugal Formerly banned socialist parties Full member parties of the Socialist International Organisations based in Lisbon Party of European Socialists member parties Political parties established in 1973 Political parties in Portugal Pro-European political parties in Portugal Progressive Alliance Social democratic parties in Europe Centre-left parties in Europe Socialist parties in Portugal