Do we like Luís Montenegro?
Our score: 4 out of 10. Mainstream centre-right with a mixed record: his party backed winding back trans legal rights and tighter nationality rules, and there's a long-running cloud over a company he founded.
Montenegro is Portugal's centre-right prime minister, running a minority government after winning the April 2024 election and the snap election in May 2025. El País reckons he has had more disappointments than satisfactions since, which is a polite way of saying it's been a bumpy ride.
The cloud that follows him is Spinumviva, a company he founded before he became PSD leader. Media reports and complaints to prosecutors raised allegations over payments to it, and the prosecutors' preventive inquiry was closed in December 2025 with no sign of a criminal offence found. He then fought to keep the firm's client list out of his public declaration, and in March 2026 the Constitutional Court refused to hear his appeal. He insists he has filed every declaration he was required to.
On the harm check, the record that matters is his party's votes rather than his words. In March 2026 the PSD voted with Chega and the CDS-PP to advance bills reversing Portugal's 2018 trans self-ID law and bringing back mandatory medical validation. The PSD argued that self-determination without technical validation undermines legal certainty. Critics from the left called it a rollback of rights, and a separate bill from the CDS-PP would ban puberty blockers for under-18s. Not a good look, mate.
On migration, the PSD, Chega, IL and CDS-PP voted together in April 2026 for a Penal Code change letting judges strip acquired Portuguese nationality as an added penalty for crimes such as drug and arms trafficking. Critics say it keeps legal problems the Constitutional Court had already flagged. Supporters call it a positive step. It's a pattern of leaning on Chega's votes to pass tougher rules.
The Chega relationship has its limits, though. In June 2026 parliament rejected his labour reform when Chega joined the left in voting against it, and he promised not to give up on it. He said he would never take any measure that could jeopardise future pension payments. Unions had already staged general strikes against the package, so that defeat won't have upset everyone.
More recently, the Interior Minister Luís Neves has been under scrutiny over a trailer seized in an anti-drug operation, which he says involved no diverted property and no favours. The Education Minister has copped heat over delays in grading exams. Montenegro also took heat for watching Portugal's World Cup matches in Toronto while fires broke out at home.