| Election Name: | 2023 Socialist Party leadership election |
| Before Election: | António Costa |
| Secretary-General | |
| Election Date: | 15–16 December 2023 |
| Turnout: | 68.7% |
| Previous Year: | 2014 |
| Previous Election: | 2014 Portuguese Socialist Party prime ministerial primary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Type: | presidential |
| After Election: | Pedro Nuno Santos |
| Colour2: | 6BC4FF |
| Candidate2: | José Luís Carneiro |
| Percentage2: | 37.4% |
| Popular Vote2: | 14,891 |
| Colour1: | 32826e |
| Candidate1: | Pedro Nuno Santos |
| Percentage1: | 60.8% |
| Popular Vote1: | 24,219 |
| Map Size: | 275px |
The 2023 Portuguese Socialist Party leadership election was held on 15 and 16 December 2023.[1] The leadership ballot was called after Prime Minister and Socialist Party Secretary-General António Costa resigned from office on 7 November 2023.[2] The winner of this election led the Socialist Party into the 2024 legislative election.
The declared candidates included the former Infrastructure and Housing Minister Pedro Nuno Santos, who represented the leftist faction of the party and wants to build upon the legacy of António Costa, Internal Administration Minister José Luís Carneiro, who represented the moderate faction and a continuation of Costism, and Daniel Adrião, a longtime critic of Costa as Secretary-General, who represented a rupture.
Even with the candidates claiming the contrary, this leadership election was viewed as another ideological dispute to decide what direction the party and the country should take, similar to the leadership elections of 2014 between Costa and Seguro, of 2004 between José Sócrates and Manuel Alegre and of 1992 between António Guterres and Jorge Sampaio.
With a turnout rate of around 70%, Pedro Nuno Santos was elected as the new Secretary-General of the Socialist Party with almost 61% of the votes, against the 37% of José Luís Carneiro. Daniel Adrião polled below 1%.[3]
| Name | Born | Experience | Announcement date | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
José Luís Carneiro | (age 52) Baião | Minister of Internal Administration (2022–2024) Member of Parliament for Braga (since 2022) Deputy Secretary-general of the Socialist Party (2019–2022) Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities (2015–2019) Mayor of Baião (2005–2015) Member of Parliament for Porto (2005; 2015–2022) | 10 November 2023 | [4] | ||
Pedro Nuno Santos | (age 46) São João da Madeira | Member of Parliament for Aveiro (since 2005) Minister of Infrastructure and Housing (2019–2023) Secretary of State for Parliament Affairs (2015–2019) Secretary-general of the Socialist Youth (2004–2008) | 13 November 2023 | [5] | ||
| Daniel Adrião | (age 56) | Member of the National Commission of the Socialist Party (since 2016) Political activist Candidate in the PS leadership elections of 2016, 2018 and 2021 | 17 November 2023 | [6] |
| Candidate | Original slogan | English translation | Refs | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| José Luís Carneiro | « Por Todos. Para Todos » | "By All. For All" | [15] | ||
| Pedro Nuno Santos | « Portugal Inteiro » | "Whole Portugal" | |||
| Daniel Adrião | « Democracia Plena » | "Full Democracy" | [16] | ||
José Luís Carneiro and Daniel Adrião proposed a series of debates between the candidates, but Pedro Nuno Santos refused to participate in any debate. Therefore, no debates between the candidates to the leadership were held.[17]
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Others/ Undecided | Lead | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICS/ISCTE | 18–27 Nov 2023 | 803 | 26 | 24 | 50 | 2 | |
| CESOP–UCP | 15–24 Nov 2023 | 1,102 | 29 | 38 | 33 | 9 | |
| Aximage | 18–23 Nov 2023 | 802 | 52 | 26 | 22 | 26 | |
| Intercampus | 14–17 Nov 2023 | 604 | 31.7 | 28.1 | 40.2 | 3.6 | |
| Aximage | 10–13 Nov 2023 | 504 | 32 | 18 | 50 | 14 | |
| Aximage | 8–9 Nov 2023 | 516 | 30 | 9 | 61 | 21 |
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Others/ Undecided | Lead | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICS/ISCTE | 18–27 Nov 2023 | ? | 37 | 32 | 31 | 5 | |
| CESOP–UCP | 15–24 Nov 2023 | ? | 39 | 34 | 27 | 5 | |
| Aximage | 18–23 Nov 2023 | ? | 61 | 26 | 13 | 35 | |
| Aximage | 10–13 Nov 2023 | ? | 31 | 23 | 47 | 8 |
All voters
PS voters
| Candidate | 15 & 16 December 2023 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | |||||
| Pedro Nuno Santos | 24,219 | 60.83 | ||||
| José Luís Carneiro | 14,891 | 37.40 | ||||
| Daniel Adrião | 382 | 0.96 | ||||
| Total | 39,492 | |||||
| Valid votes | 39,492 | 99.19 | ||||
| Invalid and blank ballots | 322 | 0.81 | ||||
| Votes cast / turnout | 39,814 | 68.65 | ||||
| Registered voters | 57,993 | |||||
| Source:[18] | ||||||
The following table shows a breakdown of the results of the election by party federation, which are mostly equal to the electoral circles.[18]
| Pedro Nuno Santos | José Luís Carneiro | Daniel Adrião | Invalid ballots | Votes cast | Registered | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
| Algarve | 710 | 62.50 | 413 | 36.36 | 12 | 1.06 | 1 | 1,136 | 1,491 | |
| Aveiro | 1,299 | 75.17 | 404 | 23.38 | 10 | 0.58 | 15 | 1,728 | 2,096 | |
| Baixo Alentejo | 405 | 56.96 | 291 | 40.93 | 6 | 0.84 | 9 | 711 | 862 | |
| Braga | 2,928 | 55.37 | 2,280 | 43.12 | 19 | 0.36 | 61 | 5,288 | 7,897 | |
| Bragança | 560 | 58.82 | 373 | 39.18 | 9 | 0.95 | 10 | 952 | 1,131 | |
| Castelo Branco | 549 | 58.10 | 373 | 39.47 | 5 | 0.53 | 18 | 945 | 1,123 | |
| Coimbra | 1,874 | 68.80 | 800 | 29.37 | 35 | 1.28 | 15 | 2,724 | 3,506 | |
| Évora | 270 | 63.08 | 145 | 33.88 | 8 | 1.87 | 5 | 428 | 534 | |
| Guarda | 487 | 60.05 | 317 | 39.09 | 5 | 0.62 | 2 | 811 | 986 | |
| Leiria | 611 | 58.58 | 410 | 39.31 | 13 | 1.25 | 9 | 1,043 | 1,249 | |
| Lisbon: Urban Area | 3,265 | 66.85 | 1,519 | 31.10 | 61 | 1.25 | 39 | 4,884 | 7,165 | |
| Lisbon: Oeste | 126 | 36.42 | 212 | 61.27 | 5 | 1.45 | 3 | 346 | 415 | |
| Portalegre | 544 | 68.77 | 230 | 29.08 | 8 | 1.01 | 9 | 791 | 1,036 | |
| Porto | 4,951 | 56.88 | 3,627 | 41.67 | 53 | 0.61 | 73 | 8,704 | 11,321 | |
| Santarém | 752 | 70.28 | 293 | 27.38 | 16 | 1.50 | 9 | 1,070 | 1,252 | |
| Setúbal | 1,382 | 66.38 | 656 | 31.51 | 27 | 1.30 | 17 | 2,082 | 2,942 | |
| Viana do Castelo | 546 | 65.00 | 289 | 34.40 | 4 | 0.48 | 1 | 840 | 976 | |
| Vila Real | 499 | 46.81 | 557 | 52.25 | 10 | 0.94 | 0 | 1,066 | 1,316 | |
| Viseu | 1,386 | 67.68 | 635 | 31.01 | 3 | 0.15 | 24 | 2,048 | 2,478 | |
| Azores | 321 | 65.91 | 165 | 33.88 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 487 | 4,677 | |
| Madeira | 493 | 40.28 | 725 | 59.23 | 6 | 0.49 | 0 | 1,224 | 1896 | |
| Europe | 117 | 54.67 | 77 | 35.98 | 19 | 8.88 | 1 | 214 | 892 | |
| Outside of Europe | 144 | 49.32 | 100 | 34.25 | 48 | 16.44 | 0 | 292 | 752 | |