Portugal lawmakers reject no-confidence motion over embattled minister

By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Portugal’s parliament on Tuesday rejected a no-confidence motion filed by the far-right Chega party against Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s centre-right minority government, as other opposition parties sought to avoid fresh political instability.

It was the first no-confidence motion faced by the current government during its 15 months in office, underscoring the fragility of Montenegro’s minority administration.

The motion stems from Montenegro’s refusal to sack Interior Minister Luis Neves over allegations of misconduct during his eight years as head of the Judicial Police. Montenegro has called Chega’s move a “mere political manoeuvre” and defended Neves as an efficient minister.

Prosecutors are investigating how a trailer loaded with drug precursor chemicals seized in a police operation ended up at a storage site owned by a contractor who later carried out work at Neves’ property. Building permits at the property and Neves’ rent-free use of a car seized from a convicted drug trafficker are also being investigated.

Neves has denied any wrongdoing and refused to step down. He said the arrangement with the contractor saved the state disposal costs.

Chega leader Andre Ventura said Neves was unfit for office and that keeping him in government showed that “the ethical standard in Portugal has completely disappeared”.

Chega, with its 60 lawmakers, is the second-largest group in the 230-seat parliament. The ruling centre-right coalition has 91 seats. The Liberal Initiative’s nine MPs and Livre’s six lawmakers voted against the motion, while all other parties, including the Socialists, with 58 seats, abstained.

“It will not be the Socialists who throw the country into political chaos,” their leader, Jose Luis Carneiro, said, adding that while the Neves case was eroding Montenegro’s political authority, Chega was merely seeking to “occupy media space” with its motion.

Only once in Portugal’s democratic history, in 1987, has parliament passed a motion of no confidence and toppled a government. Montenegro, who first came to power in April 2024, has survived two such motions already. His first administration collapsed in March 2025, however, after he himself proposed a motion of confidence and subsequently lost the vote.

“While some are nursing an election hangover, we are delivering on the government’s programme and providing Portugal with predictability and credibility,” Montenegro said during the parliamentary debate.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Hugh Lawson and Gareth Jones)