Luis Montenegro, winner of Sunday's elections in Portugal at the head of a center-right coalition according to projections from the polls, is a seasoned parliamentarian with no government experience, seen as honest and competent despite a lack of charisma.
Having become leader of the opposition a few months after the Socialist Party won an absolute majority in the legislative elections of January 2022, this 51-year-old man, with an imposing stature, brown with blue eyes and a dimple in his chin, seemed destined to play supporting roles.
But the surprise resignation of Antonio Costa, splashed by an influence peddling affair, pushed this trained lawyer who has devoted his entire life to politics to the forefront.
Elected deputy at the age of 29, Luis Montenegro perfected his rhetoric until becoming head of the parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center right) during his last stint in power between 2011 and 2015.
Luis Montenegro.
PEDRO PINA / AFP
During this period, he supported the implementation of a rigorous budgetary austerity program negotiated by Portugal with the EU-ECB-IMF
“troika”
in exchange for a financial aid plan, which avoided its bankruptcy during of the eurozone debt crisis.
“People's lives have not improved, but the country is doing better
,” he said, defending the need for this unpopular austerity package.
A sentence widely criticized by those who saw a lack of empathy but which he did not deny, preferring to play the frankness card.
Also read: How Portugal managed to restore its public finances
According to several pre-election polls, Luis Montenegro was considered more likely to become a good prime minister than his socialist rival Pedro Nuno Santos.
Voters interviewed for these surveys described him as
“more honest”
and
“more competent”
than his opponent, even if most commentators and editorialists considered him uncharismatic.
“Discretion and solitude”
Born in Porto, the large city in the north of the country, it was in Espinho, about twenty kilometers further south, that he grew up and still lives today with his wife and two children.
It was also in Espinho, where he worked in the summer as a lifeguard monitoring the beaches of this seaside resort during his youth, that this FC Porto supporter began his career with the PSD youth team.
Municipal councilor from the age of 24, local politics did not succeed for him, since he failed to be elected mayor of Espinho in the 2005 municipal elections.
After leaving Parliament in 2018, he made his first attempt to lead his party two years later.
He finally succeeded in May 2022, supported by the internal movement still loyal to former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.
But since then, the two men have distanced themselves from the challenge posed by the rise of the far right, Luis Montenegro for his part refusing any agreement with the nationalists of the Chega party.
“No means no”
, insisted throughout the campaign this leader described by those close to him as liking to decide alone, and sometimes stubborn.
“Power is exercised with a certain discretion and sometimes in great solitude
,” the person concerned once said.
Beyond the legal disputes which brought down the outgoing socialist government, Luis Montenegro is also the target of an investigation concerning the tax advantages he benefited from during the construction of his luxurious villa in Espinho.