LISBON: A far-right contender has reached the second round of Portugal’s presidential election for the first time, unsettling mainstream parties and the right-wing minority government of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.

Socialist candidate Antonio Jose Seguro topped the first-round ballot on Sunday and will now face off against the far-right’s Andre Ventura, whom he outscored with a vote share of 31.1pc to 23.5, according to official near-complete results.

Leading newspaper Publico said on Monday the run-off on Feb 8 would be a battle between moderation and extremism. Although he failed to top the first-round standings in line with pre-vote opinion polls Ventura, of the far-right Chega (Enough) party, eased out liberal rival Joao Cotrim Figueiredo and government-endorsed candidate Luis Marques Mendes.

Cotrim came third with 16, while government favourite Mendes trailed in fifth place with just 11.3pc. This was the first time in four decades that a candidate had not won outright in the first-round ballot.

Pollsters predict Seguro will trounce Ventura in the run-off vote to succeed outgoing conservative president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Sunday’s outcome was nonetheless “another step forward for the electoral and political growth of the radical right”, said Antonio Costa Pinto of the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon.

“What matters now is what level of hegemony Ventura will achieve on the right, depending on his election results” in the run-off vote, Costa Pinto said. “That represents a major problem for a minority government which must negotiate with Andre Ventura in order to survive,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2026