Prime Minister of Portugal

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 (chancellor), the mordomo-mor (mayor of the palace) and the escrivão da puridade (king's private secretary).

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 (President of the Council of Ministers). 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 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:

• 1st Mário Soares (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;
• 6th Francisco Pinto Balsemão (two terms);
• 1st Mário Soares (third term);
• 7th Aníbal Cavaco Silva (three terms);
• 8th António Guterres (two terms);
• 9th José Manuel Barroso;
• 10th Pedro Santana Lopes;
• 11th José Sócrates (two terms);
• 12th Passos Coelho (two terms);
• 13th António Costa (three terms);
• 14th Luís Montenegro (two terms);

Prime minister's residence

Main article: Palacete de São Bento

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

Main article: List of prime ministers of Portugal

Term of office in years

Main article: List of prime ministers of Portugal by time in office

Graphical timeline (since 1976)

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:130 left:3 AlignBars = late

Colors = id:PS value:rgb(1,0.40,1) legend:Socialist_(PS) id:PSD value:rgb(1,0.60,0) legend:Social_Democratic_(PSD) id:PP value:blue legend:CDS-People's_Party_(CDS-PP) id:IND value:gray(0.6) legend:None_(Independent) id:gray1 value:gray(0.8) id:gray2 value:gray(0.9) id:grid value:gray(0.5)

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1976 till: TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1980 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1976

Legend = columns:1 left:255 top:35 columnwidth:75

TextData = pos:(20,27) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"Political parties:"

BarData = barset:PM

bar:Soares bar:daCosta bar:MotaPinto bar:Pintasilgo bar:SáCarneiro bar:doAmaral bar:Balsemão bar:Cavaco bar:Guterres bar:Barroso bar:Santana bar:Sócrates bar:Passos bar:Costa bar:Montenegro

PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM

bar:Soares from: 23/07/1976 till: 28/08/1978 color:PS from: 09/06/1983 till: 06/11/1985 color:PS text:"Soares" fontsize:10 bar:daCosta from: 28/08/1978 till: 22/11/1978 color:IND text:"Nobre da Costa" fontsize:10 bar:MotaPinto from: 22/11/1978 till: 01/08/1979 color:IND text:"Mota Pinto" fontsize:10 bar:Pintasilgo from: 01/08/1979 till: 03/01/1980 color:IND text:"Pintasilgo" fontsize:10 bar:SáCarneiro from: 03/01/1980 till: 04/12/1980 color:PSD text:"Sá Carneiro" fontsize:10 bar:doAmaral from: 04/12/1980 till: 09/01/1981 color:PP text:"Freitas do Amaral (interim)" fontsize:10 bar:Balsemão from: 09/01/1981 till: 09/06/1983 color:PSD text:"Balsemão" fontsize:10 bar:Cavaco from: 06/11/1985 till: 28/10/1995 color:PSD text:"Cavaco Silva" fontsize:10 bar:Guterres from: 28/10/1995 till: 06/04/2002 color:PS text:"Guterres" fontsize:10 bar:Barroso from: 06/04/2002 till: 17/07/2004 color:PSD text:"Durão Barroso" fontsize:10 bar:Santana from: 17/07/2004 till: 12/03/2005 color:PSD text:"Santana Lopes" fontsize:10 bar:Sócrates from: 12/03/2005 till: 21/06/2011 color:PS text:"Sócrates" fontsize:10 bar:Passos from: 21/06/2011 till: 26/11/2015 color:PSD text:"Passos Coelho" fontsize:10 bar:Costa from: 26/11/2015 till: 02/04/2024 color:PS text:"Costa" fontsize:10 bar:Montenegro from: 02/04/2024 till: color:PSD text:"Montenegro" fontsize:10

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: File:Анибал Каваку Силва 02 (13-06-2013) (cropped).jpg|Aníbal Cavaco Silva (1985–1995)

File:António Guterres crop.jpg|António Guterres (1995–2002)

File:José Manuel Barroso EC Presidents 2024(cropped).png|José Manuel Durão Barroso (2002–2004)

File:Pedro Santana Lopes.png|Pedro Santana Lopes (2004–2005)

File:Socrates Brasilia 2011.png|José Sócrates (2005–2011)

File:Pedro Passos Coelho January 2025.jpg|Pedro Passos Coelho (2011–2015)

File:António Costa (2024) (cropped).jpg|António Costa (2015–2024)

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, António Guterres (1995–2002) ranked as the best prime minister. Mário Soares (1976–78 and 1983–85) and Aníbal Cavaco Silva (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 (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

References

1. (October 10, 2010). "Article 185 (Substitution of members of the Government), ''Constitution of the Portuguese Republic''". Assembly of the Republic.
2. (6 May 2024). "Remunerações dos Cargos Políticos em Portugal". MaisLiberdade.
3. (2 April 2024). "Presidente deu posse ao primeiro-ministro e ministros do XXIV Governo Constitucional".
4. (12 March 2025). "Luís Montenegro está a viver em São Bento. Mas em que estado é que está o palacete?".
5. (28 November 2012). "E o prémio de melhor primeiro-ministro português vai para...". Notícias ao Minuto.
6. (10 April 2014). "António Guterres o melhor primeiro-ministro da democracia e Durão Barroso o pior". i.
7. (1981-07-23). "Sondagem Tempo-Antropos". Tempo.
8. (26 November 2012). "Barómetro Pitagórica Novembro 2012".
9. (1 April 2014). "Barómetro Pitagórica Março 2014".