Portugal’s governing center-right coalition won a snap election on Sunday but failed to secure a majority amid a surge in votes for the hard-right Chega party.
While the results are likely to produce little change in Portugal’s leadership, they cement the evolution of Chega from a onetime protest movement to a powerful political contender in a country that unlike others in Europe, had until recently largely shunned the hard right.
“Chega is the real winner” of this election, said António Costa Pinto, a political scientist with the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon.
As of Monday morning, official results showed Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s center-right Democratic Alliance with 32 percent of the vote. The center-left Socialist Party and Chega were neck and neck, with the Socialists at around 23 percent and Chega at around 22 percent.
With only a few hundred thousand overseas ballots left to be counted, Mr. Montenegro’s lead was secure. But the remaining votes could be enough to determine second place.
Mr. Montenegro’s coalition has refused to ally with Chega, and experts say that the country is likely headed for another unstable minority government.
The snap election — the third in as many years — was called after Portugal’s Parliament ousted the year-old center-right government in a vote of no confidence in March. That government, led by Mr. Montenegro, had been on a shaky footing from the start given that it controlled far less than a majority in the Parliament, but it was tarnished by a controversy over his business dealings.
Chega, which means “enough” in Portuguese, is the first hard-right party to gain ground in Portugal’s political scene since 1974 and the end of the nationalist dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar. In the last election a year ago, it secured 18 percent of the vote.
Analysts say the party has succeeded in part by capitalizing on anti-immigration sentiment and economic resentments. It also has promised tougher immigration measures and greater law and order.
Tiago Carrasco contributed reporting from Lisbon.
Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome.
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