PS Leader Pedro Nuno Santos Steps Down After Election Setback, Carlos César Takes Interim Charge

Pedro Nuno Santos will step down as the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (PS) this Saturday, following the party's third-worst electoral performance in its history. The PS nearly tied with the Chega party, prompting Santos to resign just a year and a half after his election. Carlos César, the party's president, will assume interim leadership.

The National Commission of the PS has been called to meet on Saturday in Lisbon to approve the internal electoral calendar and analyze the legislative election results. The meeting, as per the convocation accessed by Lusa, will also focus on "analyzing the political situation in light of the electoral results" and "approving electoral calendars and regulations."

In the early legislative elections held last Sunday, the PS lost 20 deputies, securing only 58 seats in parliament with 23.38% of the votes (1,394,491 votes). This result places the PS almost neck-and-neck with Chega and marks a significant drop of approximately 365,000 votes compared to last year's results.

Santos, in his concession speech, took responsibility for the outcome and announced his immediate resignation, stating he did not want to "be an obstacle in the decisions" the PS needs to make. He emphasized, "Only those who give up are defeated, and I will not give up fighting. See you soon. Thank you all."

This electoral performance is the PS's third-worst in terms of percentage, only surpassed by the results in 1985 under Almeida Santos and in 1987 under Vítor Constâncio.