The prime minister of Portugal (; ) is the

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. As head of government, the prime minister coordinates the actions of ministers, represents the

Government of Portugal A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a m ...

to the other bodies of state, is accountable to

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and keeps the

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 ...

informed. The prime minister can hold the role of head of government with the portfolio of one or more ministries. As Portugal is a

semi-presidential A semi-presidential republic, or dual executive republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of the state. It differs from a parliamen ...

parliamentary republic A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the Executive (government), executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). ...

, the prime minister is the country's leading political figure and ''de facto'' chief executive. There is no limit to the number of terms a person can serve as prime minister. The prime minister is appointed by the president following legislative elections, after having heard the parties represented in the parliament. Usually, the person named is the leader of the largest party in the previous election, but there have been exceptions over the years.

History

Since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, some officers of the Portuguese Crown gained precedence over the others, serving as a kind of prime ministers. Over time, the role of principal officer of the Crown fell upon the ''chanceler-mor'' (

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

), the ''mordomo-mor'' (

mayor of the palace Under the Merovingian dynasty, the mayor of the palace or majordomo, ( or ) was the manager of the household of the Frankish king. He was the head of the Merovingian administrative ladder and orchestrated the operation of the entire court. He ...

) and the ''escrivão da puridade'' (king's private secretary). The first modern prime minister of Portugal was Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela, who was sworn in on 24 September 1834, as ''Presidente do Conselho de Ministros'' (President of the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

). In 1911, the official title of the prime minister became ''Presidente do Ministério'' (President of the Ministry). In 1933, it became again ''Presidente do Conselho de Ministros''. The present title ''Primeiro-Ministro'' (Prime Minister), attributed to the head of the

, was officially established by the Constitution of 1976 after the revolution of 25 April 1974

Officeholders

The incumbent prime minister of Portugal is Luís Montenegro, who took office on 2 April 2024 as the 14th prime minister of the

Third Portuguese Republic The Third Portuguese Republic () is a period in the history of Portugal corresponding to the current democratic regime installed after the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, that put an end to the paternal autocratic regime of ''Estado N ...

. The official residence of the prime minister is the Palacete de São Bento, a mansion next to São Bento Palace, which, in confusion, is sometimes also called "São Bento Palace". Portuguese prime ministers of the Third Portuguese Republic: * 1st

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 ...

(two terms); * 2nd Alfredo Nobre da Costa; * 3rd Carlos Mota Pinto; * 4th Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo; * 5th Francisco Sá Carneiro; * (interim) Diogo Freitas do Amaral –

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

; * 6th Francisco Pinto Balsemão (two terms); * 1st

(third term); * 7th

Aníbal Cavaco Silva Aníbal António Cavaco Silva (; born 15 July 1939) is a Portuguese economist and politician who served as the 19th president of Portugal, from 9 March 2006 to 9 March 2016, and as prime minister of Portugal, from 6 November 1985 to 25 October ...

(three terms); * 8th

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), ...

(two terms); * 9th

José Manuel Barroso José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician and law professor. He previously served from 2002 to 2004 as the List of Prime Ministers of Portugal, 114th prime minister of Portugal and from 2004–2014 as the 11 ...

; * 10th Pedro Santana Lopes; * 11th José Sócrates (two terms); * 12th Passos Coelho (two terms); * 13th

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 ...

(three terms); * 14th Luís Montenegro (two terms);

Prime minister's residence

File:22 11 2022 Encontro com o senhor António Costa, Primeiro-Ministro da República Portuguesa (52518745795).jpg, Facade of the São Bento Mansion. File:Pedro Sánchez se reúne con Antònio Costa en Portugal, Lisboa, lunes 6 de julio de 2020 (06).png, Interior of the Mansion. Just behind the main building of the Assembly of the Republic, there is a mansion that serves as residence and office for the prime minister of Portugal. The mansion, dated from 1877, was built within the garden of the old monastery that held the Portuguese parliament. It has been the prime minister's official residence since 1938, when Salazar moved in. Although it is the official residence of the prime minister, not all incumbents have lived in the mansion during their term in office. The incumbent Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, currently resides in the mansion.

List of prime ministers of Portugal

Term of office in years

Graphical timeline (since 1976)

Historical rankings of prime ministers

In 2012 and 2014 newspaper '' i'' and the polling agency Pitagórica conducted polls asking for the best Portuguese prime minister among the seven most recent ones (i.e. in the previous 30 years). The results revealed that the public clearly separated the seven evaluated prime ministers between the three best ones (each receiving more than 20% of the votes) and the four worst (each receiving from 4 to 8% of the votes). In both polls,

(1995–2002) ranked as the best prime minister.

(1976–78 and 1983–85) and

(1985–95) were also among the best prime ministers. On the other hand, José Manuel Durão Barroso (2002–04), Pedro Santana Lopes (2004–05), José Sócrates (2005–11) and

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese people, Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the List of prime ministers of Portugal, 117th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 201 ...

(2011–15, incumbent at the time of the polls) ranked as the worst prime ministers. Pedro Santana Lopes was ranked the worst in the 2012 poll while Barroso ranked as the worst in the 2014 one. Together, the three best prime ministers ruled Portugal uninterruptedly from 1983 to 2002, while the four worst ruled from 2002 to 2015.

References

External links

Official website of the Prime Minister of Portugal
{{Prime Minister * Government of Portugal 1834 establishments in Portugal Articles which contain graphical timelines