A center-right coalition won a narrow victory in Portugal’s snap elections on Sunday but fell short of an outright majority, as fledgling radical right party Chega took nearly a fifth of the vote.
The Democratic Alliance coalition won 29.5% of the 98.98% of votes counted early Monday, with the incumbent Socialist Party on 28.7%. The results are not final – but Socialist Party leader Pedro Nuno Santos has already conceded. Chega won 18%, a breakthrough for the radical right party and its leader, André Ventura, a former trainee priest and football pundit.
Portugal – one of the poorest countries in Western Europe – is suffering a housing crisis, with soaring rents and shortages of affordable homes, as well as a struggling health care system. The center-left Socialist Party has been in power since late 2015. Nuno Santos, 46, took over from Costa as the party’s leader following his resignation. Dubbed the “caviar leftist,” Santos has sought to prove his dedication to the working classes despite coming from a wealthy background.