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2009 European Parliament election in Portugal

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2009 European Parliament election in Portugal
← 2004
7 June 2009
2014 →
22 seats to the European Parliament
Turnout36.8% Decrease 1.8 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Paulo Rangel Vital Moreira Miguel Portas
Party PSD PS BE
Alliance EPP PES EACL
Last election 7 seats (FP) 12 seats, 44.5% 1 seat, 4.9%
Seats won 8 7 3
Seat change Increase 1 Decrease 5 Increase 2
Popular vote 1,131,744 946,818 382,667
Percentage 31.7% 26.5% 10.7%
Swing [a] Decrease 18.0 pp Increase 5.8 pp
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Ilda Figueiredo Nuno Melo
Party CDU CDS–PP
Alliance GUE/NGL EPP
Last election 2 seats, 9.1% 2 seats (FP)
Seats won 2 2
Seat change Steady 0 Steady 0
Popular vote 379,787 298,423
Percentage 10.6% 8.4%
Swing Increase 1.5 pp [a]

An election of the delegation from Portugal to the European Parliament was held on 7 June 2009.

In a surprise upset, the Social Democrats (PSD) were the big winners of this election, debunking forecasts of a very complicated result for then PSD leader, Manuela Ferreira Leite, just a few months before the legislative election. The PSD won 31.7 percent of the vote and 8 seats. It was the first victory of the PSD, in a European election, since 1989. On the other hand, the election was a huge setback for the Socialist Party (PS), which lost almost 18 percentage points. Basically all predictions that pointed to a rather safe PS victory in the election were wrong. As a result, the party lost five of its twelve European Parliament members. The People's Party (CDS-PP) also had a surprising result, winning 8 percent of the vote and electing two European Parliament members. Both PSD and CDS-PP, which ran in a joint list in 2004, increased considerably their scores and together won more than 40 percent of the vote and 10 European Parliament members.

On the left, both the Left Bloc (BE) and Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) achieved very good results, with the historic fact of BE surpassing CDU in both votes and seats for the first time, although only just. Both parties increased their scores at the expense of the Socialist Party. The Left Bloc won 10.7 percent of the vote and three European Parliament members, their best score in EU elections to date, and CDU surpassed once again the 10 percent mark winning 10.6 percent of the vote, but maintaining the two European Parliament members they got in 2004.

Turnout in the elections was quite low, as only 36.78 percent of the electorate cast a ballot, a slightly lower share than in the 2004 election. However, the number of ballots cast was higher than in 2004, and the number of registered voters increased considerably in these elections, making the final turnout share lower than in 2004.

Electoral system

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The voting method used, for the election of European members of parliament, is by proportional representation using the d'Hondt method, which is known to benefit leading parties. In the 2009 European Union elections, Portugal had 22 seats to be filled. Deputies are elected in a single constituency, corresponding to the entire national territory. Changes to the electoral registration system, approved in 2008, which made registration automatic based on each voter's Identity card, led to a significant increase in the number of registered voters, from 8,8 million in 2004 to 9,7 million in 2009.[1]

Parties and candidates

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The lists were headed by[2]

Campaign period

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Party slogans

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Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Refs
PS « Nós, Europeus » "We, Europeans" [3]
PSD « Assina por baixo? » "Will you sign below?" [4]
CDU « Em Portugal e na Europa » "In Portugal and in Europe" [5]
CDS–PP « Soluções sérias para Portugal » "Serious solutions for Portugal" [6]
BE « Está na hora » "It's time" [7]

Candidates' debates

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2004 European Parliament election in Portugal debates
Date Organisers Moderator(s)     P  Present    A  Absent invitee  N  Non-invitee 
PS
Moreira		 PSD
Rangel		 CDU
Figueiredo		 CDS–PP
Melo		 BE
Portas		 Refs
17 April RTP1 Fátima Campos Ferreira P P P P P [8]
24 April SIC Notícias Clara de Sousa P P N N N [9]
14 May TVI24 Paulo Magalhães P P P P P [10]
21 May TVI24 Paulo Magalhães P P N N N [11]

Opinion polling

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Exit polls from the three major television networks in Portugal, RTP1, SIC and TVI were given precisely at 20:00 pm (local time) on 7 June 2009.

  Exit poll

Polling firm/Link Date Released PS PSD CDS–PP CDU BE O Lead
2009 EP election 7 June 2009 26.5
7		 31.7
8		 8.4
2		 10.6
2		 10.7
3		 12.1
0		 5.2
CESOP–UCP 7 June 2009 28–33
7/8		 29–34
8/9		 7–10
2		 9–12
2/3		 9–12
2
—
 1
Eurosondagem 7 June 2009 27.7–31.5
7/8		 29.2–33.0
7/8		 7.5–9.3
2		 9.5– 11.3
2/3		 11.6–13.4
3
—
 1.5
Intercampus 7 June 2009 24.1–28.1
6/8		 30.4–34.4
8/9		 6.7– 9.3
1/2		 9.7–12.7
2/3		 9.8–12.8
2/3
—
 6.3
CESOP–UCP 5 June 2009 34
9		 32
8		 4
1		 11
2		 9
2		 10
0		 2
Eurosondagem 5 June 2009 36.0 31.9 6.1 9.0 10.1 6.9 4.1
Aximage 4 June 2009 36.2 30.9 5.0 10.1 10.2 7.6 5.3
Marktest 4 June 2009 29.4 32.5 3.3 8.9 8.9 17.0 3.1
Marktest 1 June 2009 31.9 30.1 4.7 7.1 7.1 19.1 1.8
Intercampus 29 May 2009 37.1 32.0 3.5 7.7 9.9 9.8 5.1
Eurosondagem 29 May 2009 35.5 32.5 6.5 9.2 8.8 7.5 3.0
Aximage 26 May 2009 38.0 31.1 6.3 7.9 8.5 8.2 6.9
Eurosondagem 22 May 2009 34.3
8/9		 32.1
8		 6.9
1/2		 8.9
2		 10.1
2		 7.7
0		 2.2
Aximage 17 May 2009 38.5 32.3 5.6 8.7 9.2 5.7 6.2
Marktest 9 May 2009 33.1 32.9 4.5 7.6 8.4 13.5 0.2
CESOP–UCP 1 May 2009 39 36 4 7 12 2 3
Intercampus 24 April 2009 34.0 33.5 6.9 7.9 18.0 N/a 0.5
2004 EP election 13 June 2004 44.5
12		 33.3
9		 9.1
2		 4.9
1		 8.2
0		 11.2

Voter turnout

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The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day including voters from Overseas.

Turnout Time
12:00 16:00 19:00
2004 2009 ± 2004 2009 ± 2004 2009 ±
Total 14.20% 11.86% Decrease 2.34 pp 27.19% 26.82% Decrease 0.37 pp 38.60% 36.78% Decrease 1.82 pp
Sources[12][13]

Results

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Party and European Parliament groupVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Social Democratic PartyEPP1,131,74431.71[a]8+1
Socialist PartyS&D946,81826.53–17.997–5
Left BlocGUE/NGL382,66710.72+5.813+1
Unitary Democratic CoalitionGUE/NGL379,78710.64+1.5520
CDS – People's PartyEPP298,4238.36[a]20
Hope for Portugal MovementNI55,0721.54New0New
Portuguese Workers' Communist PartyNI42,9401.20+0.1300
Earth PartyELDR24,0620.67+0.2700
Merit and Society MovementNI21,7380.61New0New
Humanist PartyNI17,1390.48+0.0900
People's Monarchist PartyNI14,4140.40–0.0500
National Renewal PartyNI13,2140.37+0.1200
Workers' Party of Socialist UnityNI5,1770.15+0.0200
Total3,333,195100.00–22–2
Valid votes3,333,19593.39–2.65
Invalid votes69,9181.96+0.57
Blank votes165,8304.65+2.08
Total votes3,568,943100.00–
Registered voters/turnout9,704,55936.78–1.82
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
Vote share
PSD
 
 31.71%
PS
 
 26.53%
BE
 
 10.72%
CDU
 
 10.64%
CDS-PP
 
 8.36%
MEP
 
 1.54%
PCTP/MRPP
 
 1.20%
MPT
 
 0.67%
MMS
 
 0.61%
Others
 
 1.40%
Blank/Invalid
 
 6.61%
Seats
PSD
 
 36.36%
PS
 
 31.82%
BE
 
 13.64%
CDU
 
 9.09%
CDS-PP
 
 9.09%

Distribution by European group

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Summary of political group distribution in the 7th European Parliament (2009–2014)[14]
Groups Parties Seats Total %
European People's Party (EPP) 8
2		 10 45.45
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) 7 7 31.82
European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) 3
2		 5 22.73
Total 22 22 100.00

Maps

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See also

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Notes

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  1. 1 2 3 4 The Social Democratic Party and the People's Party contested, together, the 2004 election in a coalition (Forward Portugal).

References

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  1. ↑ "Eles nunca foram eleitores e gostavam de assim ter continuado". Público. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  2. ↑ "Lista de candidatos ao PE 2009 / Candidate list for EP 2009" (PDF). Retrieved 4 June 2009.[permanent dead link]
  3. ↑ "Partido Socialista Europeias 2009" (PDF). Socialist Party (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  4. ↑ "A Presidente estará muitas vezes ao lado de Rangel" (PDF). Social Democratic Party (in Portuguese). 27 May 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  5. ↑ "CDU no distrito de Santarém a dramatizar apelo ao voto". Público (in Portuguese). 1 June 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  6. ↑ "Primeiros cartazes do CDS-PP apostam em temas nacionais". Público (in Portuguese). 6 May 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  7. ↑ "Miguel Portas destaca "extraordinário" resultado do Bloco de Esquerda". Público (in Portuguese). 7 June 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  8. ↑ "Primeiro debate entre candidatos às eleições europeias terá lugar no Prós e Contras". Público (in Portuguese). 17 April 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  9. ↑ "Debate Europeias 2009". Sapo Videos (in Portuguese). 24 April 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  10. ↑ "Candidatos às Europeias em debate na TVI24". TVI (in Portuguese). 15 May 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  11. ↑ "Debate Europeias 2009". TVI (in Portuguese). 21 May 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  12. ↑ "Europeias 2009 - Afluência". eleicoes.mai.gov.pt/europeias2009/index.html (in Portuguese). Ministry of Internal Administration. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  13. ↑ "Europeus arredados das eleições até às 16h00". Público (in Portuguese). 13 June 2004. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  14. ↑ "Elecciones al Parlamento Europeo: Resultados por países 1979 – 2014". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
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