Luís Montenegro

Luís Filipe Montenegro Cardoso de Morais Esteves is a Portuguese politician and lawyer serving as the prime minister of Portugal since April 2024. He is the president of the Social Democratic Party and he leads the 25th Constitutional Government.
Montenegro was a member of the Assembly of the Republic from Aveiro from 2002 to 2018, leading his party's parliamentary group between 2011 and 2017. After being defeated by Rui Rio in his party's 2020 leadership election, he won against Jorge Moreira da Silva in 2022 and became President of the PSD.
Under Montenegro’s leadership, the PSD and CDS-PP formed the centre-right Democratic Alliance and won a plurality of seats in the 2024 Portuguese legislative election. He was appointed prime minister by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, leading the XXIV Constitutional Government, a coalition minority government. His government fell in March 2025 after losing a vote of confidence amid an alleged conflict of interest affair, but the Democratic Alliance increased its plurality of seats in the subsequent snap election and formed the XXV Constitutional Government.

WWW Official Site 𝕏 LMontenegroPSD FB luismontenegropsd

Biography

Education and local politics

Montenegro was born in Porto and raised in Espinho in the Aveiro District. He graduated from the Porto School of Law at the Catholic University of Portugal and became a lawyer, the same profession as his father and grandfather. He was president of the Social Democratic Youth in Espinho from 1994 to 1996. He served on the city's council from 1997 to 2001, and ran for mayor in 2005, losing to José Mota of the Socialist Party by a 45% to 38% margin.

Assembly of the Republic

In 2002, 29-year-old Montenegro was elected to the Assembly of the Republic for Aveiro. He became the PSD parliamentary group's deputy leader to Miguel Macedo in 2010, and he received 86% of the votes to lead the group in June 2011, after PSD member Pedro Passos Coelho had been elected prime minister.
The early years of Montenegro's leadership coincided with the European troika intervention to deal with the financial crisis; he was criticised in January 2014 for saying "the life of the people is no better, but the life of the country is a lot better". He defended the implementation of a strict economic austerity programme negotiated by Portugal in exchange for an international financial bailout. He left parliament in February 2018 after Passos Coelho's resignation, warning that the PSD should not turn into new leader "Rui Rio's group of friends".
In early January 2019, amid bad polling numbers for the PSD, Montenegro challenged Rio to call a leadership ballot, with Montenegro announcing he would run against him. Rio refused to call a leadership ballot, but instead called for a motion of confidence in his leadership. Rio won the motion by a 75 to 50 vote in favour, and Montenegro conceded defeat.

Leader of the PSD

Following the Social Democrats' defeat in the 2019 legislative election, in January 2020, Montenegro announced his second candidacy for the PSD leadership election, challenging again Rio. During the campaign, Rio attacked Montenegro for being a Freemason. In the run-off, Rio won with 53.2% of the votes, against the 46.8% for Montenegro.
Rio resigned following the PSD's poor performance in the 2022 Portuguese legislative election. Montenegro was the first person to put himself forward for the party leadership election, in which he ran against former minister Jorge Moreira da Silva. Montenegro won with 72.47% of the votes, beating his opponent in every district.
Under Montenegro’s leadership, the PSD reached an agreement in January 2024 with the CDS-PP for a pre-electoral alliance as they sought to bolster their chances of winning the national elections later that year. The Democratic Alliance took the most seats in the election with 80, two more than the PS. One of Montenegro's campaign promises was the full privatisation of TAP Air Portugal.
On 21 March 2024, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa formally issued Montenegro an invitation to form a government. Montenegro's new government was then presented to, and approved by, the president on 28 March.

Prime Minister of Portugal

Montenegro was sworn-in as prime minister of Portugal, heading the XXIV Constitutional Government, on 2 April 2024 at a ceremony in the Ajuda National Palace in Lisbon. Prior to taking office, Montenegro vowed to govern with a minority government instead of forming a coalition with the ascendant right-wing populist party Chega, and decried their leader André Ventura as "often xenophobic, racist, populist and excessively demagogic".
In May 2024, the Portuguese government under Montenegro announced that a new Lisbon airport would be built in Alcochete and would be ready by 2034.
Days before the 2024 European Parliament election in Portugal, Montenegro announced a toughening of Portugal's immigration laws; the country had previously allowed those with a tourist visa to apply for residency. He said that the existing laws had led to "excessive abuse of our willingness to receive".
In July 2024, he announced a reduction in corporate income tax from the current 21% to 15%. This measure would cost the public purse around 500 million euros a year.
In September 2024, Montenegro ran unopposed in the PSD leadership election. He received 97.45% of the votes, while the majority of party members did not vote.

Tax benefits and ''Spinumviva'' cases

In 2023, an anonymous complaint was sent to the Portuguese Public Prosecution Service alleging that Montenegro received tax benefits granted for the restoration of old buildings when he did a complete demolition of an old building and built a new one in its place, in Espinho. A criminal investigation was later opened. On 2 December 2024, the Public Prosecution Office announced the closure of the criminal investigation due to finding no evidence of crimes or irregularities.
On 15 February 2025, Correio da Manhã newspaper published an investigation in which they found that Montenegro's family has a business with real estate interests, called Spinumviva. Montenegro confirmed the existence of the company, but denied it being only a real estate and that he had sold his shares to his wife after being elected PSD leader in 2022, denying any conflict of interest. Opposition party Chega criticized the lack of answers from Montenegro and announced a motion of no confidence, that was rejected by Parliament. However, it was later revealed that Montenegro's sale of his shares to his wife was, in fact, null, as the law does not allow share sales between spouses, making Montenegro still an active shareholder of the company. This raised further questions of possible conflicts of interest and Montenegro was pressed to reveal his full list of clients, something he avoided.
On 28 February 2025, Expresso newspaper reported that Spinumviva has been receiving a monthly payment of 4,500 euros by one of their clients,, a casino company, since 2021 and which continued while Montenegro was Prime Minister. In the aftermath of this report, Spinumviva disclosed the full list of clients and the services provided. On the same day, Montenegro announced he would "analyze his personal and political situation" and announce a decision on 1 March. Montenegro announced that his wife would leave the business and it would for now on be managed by his two sons, plus, he challenged Parliament to confirm its confidence in him, otherwise he would call a vote of confidence. Two days later, on 3 March, the Public Prosecution office announced that they received an anonymous tip against Montenegro and his company, adding that, for now, they are examining the complaint. The Socialist Party also announced a Parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate the case. Montenegro called a vote of confidence, which he lost on 11 March, leading to the fall of his government. The motion lost 137 to 87 with no abstentions. More than 9 months after it was opened, the Public Prosecutor's Office closed the preliminary investigation, with no charges filed, on 17 December 2025.

2025 election

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had made clear that he would call snap elections if the government did not pass the motion of confidence. An election was called for 18 May 2025, in which Montenegro's alliance retained its plurality in parliament, but again fell short of a majority. The Democratic Alliance gained seats, while the PS lost seats and Chega made gains.
On 29 May, Montenegro was invited once again to form a new government. The XXV Constitutional Government of Portugal was sworn in on 5 June. His second term has been dominated by issues like immigration, with the approval of new legislation, supported by Chega, which further restricts migration policy, labour reforms that have received strong criticisms from trade unions, problems in the National Health Service and the persistent failures from the welfare state, in addition to the growing housing crisis.

Personal life

Montenegro was nicknamed Ervilha as a child for being small, round-figured and green-eyed, while his immediate family knew him by his middle name, Filipe. He took part in football and beach volleyball, and worked as a lifeguard as a youth, later taking up golf. In football, he supports FC Porto and S.C. Espinho, the teams of his birthplace and residence, respectively. As of May 2022, he is married and has two children.
A variety of sources dating from 2012, including SAPO's Polígrafo fact-checking website, Público, Expresso, Jornal de Negócios and Diário de Notícias maintain that in 2008, Montenegro was admitted into the Mozart Lodge, a Masonic lodge comprising politicians, businessmen and spies. In 2019, Montenegro denied being a Freemason.

Electoral history

Espinho City Council election, 2005

PSD leadership election, 2020

! align="center" rowspan=2 colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate
! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 50px"|1st round
! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 50px"|2nd round
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

PSD leadership election, 2022

! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

Legislative election, 2024

! colspan="2" | Party
! Candidate
! Votes
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−

Legislative election, 2025

! colspan="2" | Party
! Candidate
! Votes
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−