CENTRE-LEFT Socialist candidate Antonio Jose Seguro recorded a thumping victory over hard-right populist Andre Ventura in Portugal’s runoff presidential election Sunday, according to official results with 96 per cent of votes counted. Seguro won a five-year term in Lisbon’s riverside “pink palace” with 66 per cent of votes, compared with 34 per cent for Ventura. The ballot was an opportunity to test the depth of support for Ventura’s brash style, which has struck a chord with voters and helped make his Chega (Enough) party the second-biggest in the Portuguese parliament, as well as gauge the public appetite for Europe’s increasing shift to the right in recent years.

 

Seguro, a longstanding Socialist politician, positioned himself as a moderate candidate who will cooperate with Portugal’s centre-right minority government, repudiating Ventura’s anti-establishment and anti-immigrant tirades. He won the backing of other mainstream politicians on the left and right who want to halt the rising populist tide. In Portugal, the president is largely a figurehead with no executive power. Traditionally, the head of state stands above the political fray, mediating disputes and defusing tensions.