2009 European Parliament election in Portugal

2009 European Parliament election in Portugal

← 2004 7 June 2009 2014 →
22 seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	36.8% 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 1 5 2 Popular vote 1,131,744 946,818 382,667 Percentage 31.7% 26.5% 10.7% Swing [a] 18.0 pp 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 0 0 Popular vote 379,787 298,423 Percentage 10.6% 8.4% Swing 1.5 pp [a]

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

The election was a huge setback for the Socialist Party (PS), which lost almost 18 percentage points. Basically all predictions that said that the PS would win comfortably the election, were wrong. As a result, the party also lost five of its twelve European Parliament members. The Social Democrats (PSD) were the big winners in these elections, surprising pundits and analysts who predicted a very complicated result for the PSD leader, Manuela Ferreira Leite. The PSD won 31.7 percent of the vote and 8 seats. It was the first victory of the PSD, in European elections, since 1989. 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, who ran in a joint list in 2004, increased sharply their scores and together they 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 that BE surpassed CDU in term of 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. Although the number of ballots cast was higher than in 2004, the number of registered voters increased considerably in these elections, making the final turnout share lower than in 2004.
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