2020 Azorean regional election

The 2020 Azorean regional election was held on 25 October 2020, to determine the composition of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. All 57 members of the assembly were up for election.
The Socialist Party again won the most votes with 39 percent, but lost their majority against all predictions. The party won 25 seats, 5 seats fewer than in 2016 and 4 seats short of a majority. The Socialists' main opponent, the Social Democratic Party, made significant gains by winning almost 34 percent of the votes and 21 seats, two more than in 2016.
The CDS – People's Party was able to hold on to its status as the third biggest party in the region but lost almost 2 percent of the votes and one member on the regional parliament. Overall, CDS–PP got 5.5 percent of the votes and 3 seats. The Left Bloc was also able to hold on to their 2016 score, holding their 2 seats and winning a similar share of vote to that received in 2016, with 3.8 percent. The Unitary Democratic Coalition was wiped out from the regional parliament by losing their sole member, elected in 2016, and polling just 1.7 percent of the votes.
The big surprise in the elections was the arrival of new parties, from left to right, in the Azores regional parliament. CHEGA polled at 5 percent of the votes and was able to elect 2 members to the regional parliament. People-Animals-Nature also elected one MP as did the Liberal Initiative. The new composition of the regional assembly gave the rightwing parties a majority over the left, with 29 against 28.
On election night, PSD leader José Manuel Bolieiro said the night was a historic one for democracy and the autonomous region. PS leader Vasco Cordeiro said the PS won the elections and should have a chance to form a government but acknowledged that the picture was challenging. In the days after the election, both PS and PSD started talks with parties to see if deals were possible.
On 2 November, PSD, CDS–PP and PPM announced they had reached an agreement to form a government. Shortly afterwards, Carlos Furtardo, the leader of CHEGA also announced the party would support a PSD/CDS–PP/PPM government in the regional parliament. Despite this announcement, there were divisions in CHEGA as the party's national leader, André Ventura, said no deal had been made with the Social Democrats and that the order was to not support the PSD led coalition. However, a few days later, on 6 November, CHEGA and PSD reached an agreement after CHEGA dropped several of their demands.
On the following day, 7 November, IL announced it had also reached an agreement with PSD for parliamentary support. Thus the government would be formed by a coalition of PSD, CDS-PP and PPM with parliamentary support of CHEGA and IL, totalizing a majority of 29 out of 57 seats in the parliament.
On that same day, the Representative of the Republic in the Azores, Pedro Catarino, after hearing all parties represented in the regional parliament, appointed José Manuel Bolieiro as President of the Regional Government and asked him to form a government. On 24 November, José Manuel Bolieiro and his cabinet were sworn in to office.
The turnout in these elections increased compared to the previous one, with 45.4 percent of voters casting a ballot, compared with the record-low 40.9 percent in the 2016 elections.

Background

Leadership changes and challenges

Social Democratic Party

After the defeat of the PSD in the 2016 regional election, then party leader Duarte Freitas remained in office until resigning in July 2018, for personal reasons. He called a leadership ballot for 29 September 2018. Two candidates were on the ballot: Incumbent mayor of Ribeira Grande Alexandre Gaudêncio, and Pedro Nascimento Cabral. Gaudêncio was elected with 61 percent of the votes.
! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

Electoral system

The 57 members of the Azores regional parliament are elected through a proportional system in which the 9 islands elect a number of MPs proportional to the number of registered voters. MPs are allocated by using the D'Hondt method. 5 members are also elected for a Compensation constituency. Current distribution of MPs by constituency:

Constituency	Total MPs	Registered voters
Corvo	2	337
Faial	4	13,019
Flores	3	3,119
Graciosa	3	3,936
Pico	4	13,613
Santa Maria	3	5,393
São Jorge	3	8,710
São Miguel	20	127,947
Terceira	10	52,498
Compensation	5
Total	57	228,572

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the Legislative Assembly of the Azores in the term between 2016 and 2020.

Parties running in the election

14 lists were on the ballot for the 2020 Azorean regional election, 13 parties and one coalition only in Corvo. The parties that contested the election and their lead candidates, were:

Alliance, Paulo Silva
Left Bloc, António Lima
Unitary Democratic Coalition, João Corvelo
CDS – People's Party, Artur Lima
CHEGA, Carlos Furtado
Liberal Initiative, Nuno Barata
LIVRE, José Manuel Azevedo
Earth Party, Pedro Soares Pimenta
People-Animals-Nature, Pedro Neves
Portuguese Workers' Communist Party, José Afonso Loures
Social Democratic Party, José Manuel Bolieiro
People's Monarchist Party, Paulo Estêvão
Socialist Party, Vasco Cordeiro
People's Monarchist Party/CDS – People's Party More Corvo, Paulo Estêvão

Voter turnout

The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day.

Results

Regional summary

! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left|Parties
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±pp swing
! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|MPs
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"|2016
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"|2020
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±

Results by constituency

Aftermath

Government approval

With the loss of its majority, the PS tried to reach a deal with other parties but failed, as the PSD reached a deal for a minority coalition government with CDS – People's Party and the People's Monarchist Party, plus ensured the outside support of Chega and the Liberal Initiative. On 11 December 2020, the regional parliament approved José Manuel Boleiro's minority government, the first non-socialist Azorean regional government in 24 years:

Fall of the government

In March 2023, the Liberal Initiative removed its support from the PSD/CDS/PPM minority coalition, citing deep disagreements on policy and tensions between the minor parties within the coalition. On the budget vote for 2024, in late November 2023, the coalition lost the support of their outside supporters, Liberal Initiative and Chega, and the budget fell. Bolieiro tried to present a second budget, but after meeting with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, he dropped the idea and asked for early elections. Shortly after, early elections were called for 4 February 2024.