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 parliament and keeps the president 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 parliamentary republic, 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.
WWW portugal.gov.pt

History

Since the Middle Ages, 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, the mordomo-mor and the escrivão da puridade.
The first modern prime minister of Portugal was the 1st Duke of Palmela, who was sworn in on 24 September 1834, as Presidente do Conselho de Ministros. In 1911, the official title of the prime minister became Presidente do Ministério. In 1933, it became again Presidente do Conselho de Ministros.
The present title Primeiro-Ministro, attributed to the head of the Government of Portugal, 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 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:

Prime minister's residence

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

Living former prime ministers of Portugal

Living former prime minister showing periods in office with dates of birth and age. Currently there are 7 former Prime Ministers alive:

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. The results revealed that the public clearly separated the seven evaluated prime ministers between the three best ones and the four worst. In both polls, António Guterres ranked as the best prime minister. Mário Soares and Aníbal Cavaco Silva were also among the best prime ministers. On the other hand, José Manuel Durão Barroso, Pedro Santana Lopes, José Sócrates and Pedro Passos Coelho 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.
Prime MinisterPartyTenure
Adelino da Palma CarlosInd.19740.4%
Vasco GonçalvesInd.1975–19768.0%
Pinheiro de AzevedoInd.19760.8%
Mário SoaresPS1976–1978
1983–1985		15.2%22.7%23.9%
Alfredo Nobre da CostaInd.19781.0%
Carlos Mota PintoInd.1978–19791.0%
Maria de Lourdes PintasilgoInd.1979–198013.4%
Francisco Sá CarneiroPSD198037.4%
Francisco Pinto BalsemãoPSD1981–19831.8%
Aníbal Cavaco SilvaPSD1985–199523.7%23.6%
António GuterresPS1995–200226.8%24.2%
José Manuel Durão BarrosoPSD2002–20048.1%6.7%
Pedro Santana LopesPSD2004–20054.0%6.9%
José SócratesPS2005–20116.2%7.7%
Pedro Passos CoelhoPSD2011–20158.4%6.8%