This Sunday, Portugal votes in a snap general election that will mark the end of Socialist Party prime minister António Costa’s eight years in power. Despite three election victories, Costa had to step down in November after prosecutors suggested that he may be involved in a major corruption scheme.

Costa’s rule has been through different phases. In the 2015 elections, when he first became prime minister, his party in fact failed to get more votes than the right-wing coalition. This latter had ruled the country under harsh austerity measures agreed during the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout (2011–14), leading to the longest recession in Portugal’s democratic history.

Under these constraints, in his first term Costa could become prime minister only by reaching a confidence agreement with the parliamentary left: the Communist-Green coalition (CDU) as well as the Left Bloc (BE). But in 2019 he dispensed with any broad political agreement with these forces and went on to lead two governments that each ended with early elections. His most recent government, since January 2022 — the only one where his Socialist Party had an absolute majority of seats — was especially unstable.