---
title: "Portugal’s 11 presidential candidates debate migration, instability"
type: "News"
locale: "zh-HK"
url: "https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/271417402.md"
description: "A record 11 candidates are competing in Portugal's presidential election, set for January 18. The leading candidates include Luís Marques Mendes from the Social Democratic Party and António José Seguro from the Socialist Party, with challenges from André Ventura of the Chega party and independent Henrique Gouveia e Melo. The president, while largely a figurehead, has significant powers, including vetoing legislation and dissolving Parliament. Key issues include proposed citizenship limits, labor reforms, and a law on euthanasia. Nearly 11 million voters are eligible to participate in the election."
datetime: "2026-01-04T09:35:47.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/271417402.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/271417402.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/271417402.md)
---

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# Portugal’s 11 presidential candidates debate migration, instability

A record number of 11 candidates in Portugal’s coming presidential election kicked off their campaigns on Sunday.\\nThe official two-week campaign period preceding the January 18 election will see the contenders competing to capture voters’ support. However, the broad field makes it unlikely that any candidate will capture more than 50 per cent of the vote, leaving the two top candidates to compete in a run-off ballot on February 8.\\nAmong the front runners, according to recent opinion polls, are the candidates from the country’s two main parties that have alternated in power for the past 50 years – Luís Marques Mendes from the centre-right Social Democratic Party, currently in government, and António José Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party.\\nThey are expected to face strong challenges from André Ventura, the leader of the populist anti-immigration Chega party, whose surge in support made it the second largest party in Portugal’s Parliament last year, and Henrique Gouveia e Melo, a retired rear admiral running as an independent who won public acclaim for overseeing the speedy roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.\\nIn Portugal, the president is largely a figurehead with no executive power. Mostly, the head of state aims to stand above the political fray, refereeing disputes to defuse tensions. However, the president also possesses powerful tools, being able to veto legislation from Parliament, although the veto can be overturned, as well as dissolve Parliament and call for snap elections.\\nAfter Portugal’s third general election in three years in May, its worst spell of political instability for decades, the next head of state is likely to encourage compromises. But the next occupant of the president’s riverside “pink palace” in Lisbon is likely to have to rule on some hot-button matters.\\nThe pressing issues include a proposed new bill that introduces limits on who can obtain Portuguese citizenship and under what circumstances they can be stripped of it. The Constitutional Court last month struck down the proposal, which has been returned to Parliament.\\nA government package of labour reforms that has already brought street protests and a major strike will also land on the president’s desk, as could a law permitting euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide in Portugal that Parliament approved in 2022 but has been held up by constitutional objections.\\nAlmost 11 million people are eligible to vote in the election.\\n

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