UN's Guterres favoured to become next President of Portugal

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in January 2026. The elections will elect the successor to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is barred from running for a third term.

The current United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, António Guterres, has a strong lead in the race to succeed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa as President of Portugal in 2026.

With the departure of António Costa from the list of presidential candidates – the former PM will assume the Presidency of the European Council on December 1 – Guterres appears as the outstanding leader for the 2026 presidential elections, from according to the Intercampus barometer for Jornal de Negócios, Correio da Manhã and CMTV.

Guterres, who was the PM of Portugal between 1995 and 2002, is favoured by 19.3% of the interviewees, taking over the first place from António Costa. In second place, at a significant distance, is Pedro Passos Coelho (14.1%), who also held the post of PM of Portugal between 2011 and 2015. He is the right-wing political figure in Portugal that garners the most support for the 2026 Presidential race.

He is followed by André Ventura, leader of far-right Chega, with 11.4% and Admiral Gouveia e Melo, current chief of the Navy's General Staff, who received 9.4% of the preferences. The Admiral, who rose to fame after leading Portugal’s successful Covid-19 vaccination campaign, once led the preferences of respondents.

The barometer relating to party voting intentions shows that there have been no changes over the last month, with the right-wing Democratic Alliance (AD) remaining ahead, but in a technical tie with the Socialists.

The Intercampus survey was conducted between July 19 and 26, 2024, based on 609 interviews with registered voters aged 18 and over. The margin of error is 4%, for a 95% confidence interval and the response rate obtained was 61.2%.