Luís Montenegro | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Montenegro in 2025 | |
| Prime Minister of Portugal | |
| Assumed office 2 April 2024 | |
| President | Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa |
| Preceded by | António Costa |
| President of the Social Democratic Party | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2022 | |
| Secretary-General | Hugo Soares |
| Preceded by | Rui Rio |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 1 July 2022 – 2 April 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | António Costa |
| Preceded by | Rui Rio |
| Succeeded by | Pedro Nuno Santos |
| Member of the Assembly of the Republic | |
| In office 26 March 2024 – 2 April 2024 | |
| Constituency | Lisbon |
| In office 4 April 2002 – 5 April 2018 | |
| Constituency | Aveiro |
| President of theParliamentary Group of theSocial Democratic Party | |
| In office 29 June 2011 – 19 July 2017[1] | |
| Preceded by | Miguel Macedo |
| Succeeded by | Hugo Soares |
| President of theEspinhoMunicipal Assembly | |
| In office 11 October 2009 – 29 September 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Graça Guedes |
| Succeeded by | Guy Viseu |
| Member of theEspinhoCity Council | |
| In office 14 December 1997 – 11 October 2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Luís Filipe Montenegro Cardoso de Morais Esteves (1973-02-16)16 February 1973 (age 52) Porto, Portugal |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party (1991–present) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence | Palacete de São Bento |
| Alma mater | Catholic University of Portugal |
| Occupation |
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Luís Filipe Montenegro Cardoso de Morais Esteves (European Portuguese:[luˈiʒmõtɨˈneɣɾu]; born 16 February 1973)[2] is a Portuguese politician and lawyer serving as theprime minister of Portugal since April 2024. He is the president of theSocial Democratic Party (PSD) and he leads the25th Constitutional Government.
Montenegro was a member of theAssembly of the Republic fromAveiro from 2002 to 2018, leading his party's parliamentary group between 2011 and 2017. After being defeated byRui Rio inhis party's 2020 leadership election, he won againstJorge Moreira da Silvain 2022 and became President of the PSD.
Under Montenegro’s leadership, the PSD andCDS-PP formed the centre-rightDemocratic Alliance and won a plurality of seats in the2024 Portuguese legislative election. He was appointed prime minister by PresidentMarcelo Rebelo de Sousa, leading theXXIV Constitutional Government, acoalitionminority government. His government fell in March 2025 after losing a vote of confidence amid an allegedconflict of interest affair, but the Democratic Alliance increased its plurality of seats in thesubsequent snap election and formed theXXV Constitutional Government.
Montenegro was born inPorto and raised inEspinho in theAveiro District.[3] He graduated from the Porto School of Law at theCatholic University of Portugal and became a lawyer, the same profession as his father and grandfather.[4][5] He was president of theSocial Democratic Youth in Espinho from 1994 to 1996. He served on the city's council from1997 to2001, and ran for mayor in2005, losing to José Mota of theSocialist Party (PS) by a 45% to 38% margin.[2][6]
In2002, 29-year-old Montenegro was elected to theAssembly of the Republic forAveiro. He became the PSD parliamentary group's deputy leader toMiguel Macedo in 2010, and he received 86% of the votes to lead the group in June 2011, after PSD memberPedro Passos Coelho hadbeen electedprime minister.[7]
The early years of Montenegro's leadership coincided with theEuropean troikaintervention to deal with thefinancial crisis; he was criticised in January 2014 for saying "the life of the people is no better, but the life of the country is a lot better".[3] He defended the implementation of a stricteconomic austerity programme negotiated by Portugal in exchange for an international financial bailout.[8] He left parliament in February 2018 after Passos Coelho's resignation, warning that the PSD should not turn into new leader "Rui Rio's group of friends".[9]
In early January 2019, amid bad polling numbers for the PSD, Montenegro challenged Rio to call a leadership ballot, with Montenegro announcing he would run against him.[10] Rio refused to call a leadership ballot, but instead called for a motion of confidence in his leadership.[11] Rio won the motion by a 75 to 50 vote in favour,[12] and Montenegro conceded defeat.[13]
Following the Social Democrats' defeat in the2019 legislative election, in January 2020, Montenegro announced his second candidacy for thePSD leadership election, challenging again Rio. During the campaign, Rio attacked Montenegro for being aFreemason.[14][15] In the run-off, Rio won with 53.2% of the votes, against the 46.8% for Montenegro.[16]
Rio resigned following the PSD's poor performance in the2022 Portuguese legislative election. Montenegro was the first person to put himself forward for theparty leadership election,[17] in which he ran against former ministerJorge Moreira da Silva. Montenegro won with 72.47% of the votes, beating his opponent in every district.[18]
Under Montenegro’s leadership, the PSD reached an agreement in January 2024 with theCDS-PP for a pre-electoral alliance as they sought to bolster their chances of winning thenational elections later that year.[19] TheDemocratic Alliance took the most seats in the election with 80, two more than the PS.[20] One of Montenegro's campaign promises was the full privatisation ofTAP Air Portugal.[21]
On 21 March 2024, PresidentMarcelo Rebelo de Sousa formally issued Montenegro an invitation to form a government. Montenegro's new government was then presented to, and approved by, the president on 28 March.[22][23]
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Montenegro was sworn-in asprime minister of Portugal, heading theXXIV Constitutional Government, on 2 April 2024 at a ceremony in theAjuda National Palace in Lisbon.[24][25] Prior to taking office, Montenegro vowed to govern with aminority government instead of forming a coalition with the ascendant right-wing populist partyChega, and decried their leaderAndré Ventura as "often xenophobic, racist, populist and excessively demagogic".[26]
In May 2024, the Portuguese government under Montenegro announced that anew Lisbon airport would be built inAlcochete and would be ready by 2034.[27]
Days before the2024 European Parliament election in Portugal, Montenegro announced a toughening of Portugal's immigration laws; the country had previously allowed those with a tourist visa to apply for residency. He said that the existing laws had led to "excessive abuse of our willingness to receive".[28]
In July 2024, he announced a reduction incorporate income tax from the current 21% to 15%. This measure would cost the public purse around 500 million euros a year.[29]
In September 2024, Montenegro ran unopposed in thePSD leadership election. He received 97.45% of the votes, while the majority of party members did not vote.[30]
In 2023, an anonymous complaint was sent to thePortuguese Public Prosecution Service alleging that Montenegro received tax benefits granted for the restoration of old buildings when he did a complete demolition of an old building and built a new one in its place, in Espinho. A criminal investigation was later opened.[31][32][33] On 2 December 2024, the Public Prosecution Office announced the closure of the criminal investigation due to finding no evidence of crimes or irregularities.[34]
On 15 February 2025,Correio da Manhã newspaper published an investigation in which they found that Montenegro's family has a business with real estate interests, called Spinumviva.[35] Montenegro confirmed the existence of the company, but denied it being only a real estate and that he had sold his shares to his wife after being elected PSD leader in 2022, denying anyconflict of interest.[36] Opposition party Chega criticized the lack of answers from Montenegro and announced amotion of no confidence, that was rejected by Parliament.[37] However, it was later revealed that Montenegro's sale of his shares to his wife was, in fact, null, as the law does not allow share sales between spouses, making Montenegro still an active shareholder of the company.[38] This raised further questions of possible conflicts of interest and Montenegro was pressed to reveal his full list of clients, something he avoided.[39]
On 28 February 2025,Expresso newspaper reported that Spinumviva has been receiving a monthly payment of 4,500 euros by one of their clients,Solverde [pt], a casino company, since 2021 and which continued while Montenegro was Prime Minister.[40] In the aftermath of this report, Spinumviva disclosed the full list of clients and the services provided.[41] On the same day, Montenegro announced he would "analyze his personal and political situation" and announce a decision on 1 March.[42] Montenegro announced that his wife would leave the business and it would for now on be managed by his two sons,[43] plus, he challenged Parliament to confirm its confidence in him, otherwise he would call avote of confidence.[44] Two days later, on 3 March, thePublic Prosecution office announced that they received an anonymous tip against Montenegro and his company, adding that, for now, they are examining the complaint.[45] The Socialist Party also announced aParliamentary inquiry committee to investigate the case.[46] Montenegro called a vote of confidence,[47] which he lost on 11 March, leading to the fall of his government.[48] The motion lost 137 to 87 with no abstentions.[49]
PresidentMarcelo Rebelo de Sousa had made clear that he would callsnap elections if the government did not pass the motion of confidence.[50][51] An election was called for 18 May 2025,[52] in which Montenegro's alliance retained its plurality in parliament, but again fell short of a majority. The Democratic Alliance gained seats, while the PS lost seats and Chega made gains.[53]
On 29 May, Montenegro was invited once again to form a new government.[54] TheXXV Constitutional Government of Portugal was sworn in on 5 June.[55]
Montenegro was nicknamedErvilha ("Pea") as a child for being small, round-figured and green-eyed, while his immediate family knew him by his middle name, Filipe.[5] He took part in football and beach volleyball, and worked as a lifeguard as a youth, later taking up golf.[3] In football, he supportsFC Porto andS.C. Espinho, the teams of his birthplace and residence, respectively.[56] As of May 2022, he is married and has two children.[3]
A variety of sources dating from 2012, including SAPO's Polígrafofact-checking website,Público,Expresso,Jornal de Negócios andDiário de Notícias maintain that in 2008, Montenegro was admitted into the Mozart Lodge, aMasonic lodge comprising politicians, businessmen and spies.[57][58][59][60][61] In 2019, Montenegro denied being a Freemason.[62]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS | José Mota | 9,208 | 44.9 | 4 | ±0 | |
| PSD/CDS–PP | Luís Montenegro | 7,784 | 38.0 | 3 | ±0 | |
| CDU | Fausto Neves | 1,460 | 7.1 | 0 | ±0 | |
| BE | Carminda Flores | 590 | 2.9 | 0 | new | |
| Independent | Alfredo de Araújo | 463 | 2.3 | 0 | new | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 995 | 4.9 | – | – | ||
| Turnout | 20,500 | 67.70 | 7 | ±0 | ||
| Source: Autárquicas 2005[6][63] | ||||||
| Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||
| Rui Rio | 15,546 | 49.0 | 17,157 | 53.2 | |
| Luís Montenegro | 13,137 | 41.4 | 15,086 | 46.8 | |
| Miguel Pinto Luz | 3,030 | 9.6 | |||
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 369 | – | 341 | – | |
| Turnout | 32,082 | 79.01 | 32,582 | 80.20 | |
| Source: Resultados[64] | |||||
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luís Montenegro | 19,241 | 72.5 | |
| Jorge Moreira da Silva | 7,306 | 27.5 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 437 | – | |
| Turnout | 26,984 | 60.46 | |
| Source: Resultados[65] | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AD | Luís Montenegro | 1,867,442 | 28.8 | 80 | +3 | |
| PS | Pedro Nuno Santos | 1,812,443 | 28.0 | 78 | –42 | |
| Chega | André Ventura | 1,169,781 | 18.1 | 50 | +38 | |
| IL | Rui Rocha | 319,877 | 4.9 | 8 | ±0 | |
| BE | Mariana Mortágua | 282,314 | 4.4 | 5 | ±0 | |
| CDU | Paulo Raimundo | 205,551 | 3.2 | 4 | –2 | |
| Livre | Rui Tavares | 204,875 | 3.2 | 4 | +3 | |
| PAN | Inês Sousa Real | 126,125 | 2.0 | 1 | ±0 | |
| ADN | Bruno Fialho | 102,134 | 1.6 | 0 | ±0 | |
| Other parties | 104,167 | 1.6 | 0 | ±0 | ||
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 282,243 | 4.4 | – | – | ||
| Turnout | 6,476,952 | 59.90 | 230 | ±0 | ||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[66] | ||||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AD | Luís Montenegro | 2,008,488 | 31.8 | 91 | +11 | |
| PS | Pedro Nuno Santos | 1,442,546 | 22.8 | 58 | –20 | |
| Chega | André Ventura | 1,438,554 | 22.8 | 60 | +10 | |
| IL | Rui Rocha | 338,974 | 5.4 | 9 | +1 | |
| Livre | Rui Tavares | 257,291 | 4.1 | 6 | +2 | |
| CDU | Paulo Raimundo | 183,686 | 2.9 | 3 | –1 | |
| BE | Mariana Mortágua | 125,808 | 2.0 | 1 | –4 | |
| PAN | Inês Sousa Real | 86,930 | 1.4 | 1 | ±0 | |
| ADN | Bruno Fialho | 81,660 | 1.3 | 0 | ±0 | |
| Other parties | 95,384 | 1.5 | 1 | +1 | ||
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 260,648 | 4.1 | – | – | ||
| Turnout | 6,319,969 | 58.25 | 230 | ±0 | ||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[67] | ||||||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 2022–2024 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Portugal 2024–present | Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of theParliamentary Group of theSocial Democratic Party 2011–2017 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Social Democratic Party 2022–present | Incumbent |
| First Republic (1910–1926) |
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| Second Republic (1933–1974) | ||
| Third Republic (1974–present) | ||
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| International | |
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| National | |
