section_path: Background
section_name: Background
paragraph_text: Background
  
  The Democratic Alliance (AD), then composed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM), and led by PSD leader Luís Montenegro, won the 2024 legislative election by a very narrow margin, winning almost 29% of the votes and 80 seats in the 230 seat Assembly of the Republic. The Socialist Party (PS), in power between 2015 and 2024 and led by Pedro Nuno Santos, elected in the aftermath of the resignation of then Prime Minister António Costa due to an investigation around alleged corruption involving the award of contracts for lithium and hydrogen businesses, saw a significant decrease in support, winning only 28% of the vote and 78 seats. The populist and far-right party Chega (CH) surged in the elections, gathering 18% of the votes and 50 seats in Parliament, becoming kingmaker with the best result for a third party in decades. The Liberal Initiative (IL) was able to hold on to its eight seats and gather 5% of the vote. The left-wing/far-left parties, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (BE), achieved, again, disappointing results, with BE holding on to its five seats and 4% of the votes, while the Communists' alliance got its worst result ever with just 3% of the votes and four seats. LIVRE nearly surpassed PCP by gathering also 3% of the votes and four seats. People Animals Nature (PAN) was able to win just one seat.
  
  Eleven days after election day, on 21 March 2024, Luis Montenegro was asked by President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to form a government, a minority one in this case. The new government was sworn into office on 2 April 2024.