Democratic Alliance leader Luís Montenegro votes at a polling station in Espinho, near Porto, during Sunday's elections in Portugal. The ruling Socialists conceded defeat in one of the closest elections in Portuguese history, saying they would not challenge the victory of a center-right alliance in a vote that also saw major gains for the far-right in one of Europe’s most reliably liberal countries.
“The Portuguese gave a majority,” Chega’s head, André Ventura, told journalists in Lisbon. “We will be irresponsible if we don’t form a government.” Sunday’s vote was triggered by the fall of the Socialist government under António Costa, an elder statesman of the European left who resigned as prime minister in November amid an investigation into alleged corruption in his administration’s handling of lithium mines and hydrogen projects. Costa — who is unrelated to the University of Lisbon’s Costa Pinto — has not been accused of any crime.