PORTUGAL’S centre right has claimed a narrow election victory after a surge in support for the far right.

The Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance won 79 seats in the 230-seat national assembly, while the centre-left Socialist Party (PS), in power for the past eight years, got 77 seats. Both polled about 29 per cent of the vote in a 66 per cent turnout.

But the far-right Chega (Enough) party secured 18 per cent of the vote, giving it 48 seats.

The Unitary Democratic Coalition, which includes the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Greens, secured 3.3 per cent of the votes — a fall on its 2022 score of 4.3 per cent

Smaller parties took the rest of the vote in an election that saw turnout rise to 66 per cent, the highest level in Portugal for years.

The snap election was called four months after former PS prime minister Antonio Costa stood down amid corruption allegations against his chief of staff, although no direct allegations had been made against him.

Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos conceded victory late on Sunday, saying: “We will renew the party and attempt to retrieve those Portuguese who are unhappy with the PS.”

Social Democrat (PSD) leader Luis Montenegro said that he would keep his campaign promise to shut out Chega and refuse to negotiate power-sharing with the far right. He said that he expected to form a government on his own.

Chega, which tripled its vote from the last election in 2022, ran its campaign largely on an anti-corruption platform and is the latest far-right party to make gains in polls across Europe.

Chega leader Andre Ventura said: “One thing is for sure tonight, the two-party system in Portugal is finished” and insisted that the PSD should ally with his party to form a government. 

But Sonia Ferreira, a financial manager voting in Lisbon, said: “We are seeing very extremist movements across the European Union and we must all be very careful.”