Portugal's head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has appointed the leader of the PSD and the coalition, Luís Montenegro, as prime minister, who now has around a week to present his executive. With the votes of the communities, Chega has 50 deputies, PS has 78 and AD has 80.

As soon as the votes from the emigration constituencies were counted early on Thursday, March 21, the President of the Republic of Portugal called the leader of the Democratic Alliance (AD) to Belém to nominate Luís Montenegro as prime minister and invite him to form a government.

According to the note published on the website of the Presidency of the Republic, and quoted by the Económico newspaper"The President of the Republic having heard the parties and coalitions of parties that stood in the March 10 elections to the Assembly of the Republic and obtained seats, the Democratic Alliance having won the elections in terms of seats and votes, and the Secretary General of the Socialist Party having acknowledged and confirmed that he would be leader of the Opposition, the President of the Republic decided to appoint Dr. Luís Montenegro as Prime Minister, presenting the organization and composition of the XXIV Constitutional Government to the President of the Republic in due course."

After being appointed, Portugal's new prime minister announced that he will return to Belém to present his executive next week, on March 28. The "inauguration will be on April 2", he added.

The leader of the PSD/CDS coalition had met with the President of the Republic for the first time hours earlier, at the end of Wednesday afternoon, to analyze the election results. As soon as he left, he told journalists that he expected Marcelo to appoint him Prime Minister as soon as the votes from Europe and Outside Europe were counted.

"My perspective is that, as soon as the vote count is completed, I will be nominated by the President of the Republic," the AD leader told reporters after an audience with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to whom he went to say that he is "prepared" to form a government, that he is "focused" on solving the problems of the Portuguese and making the "economy stronger". Montenegro didn't want to talk about the details of the future executive, nor about its composition or objectives, arguing that there is no government yet because the decision was "now" in Marcelo's hands and that only after the nomination would the "procedures" on governance be taken.

But he made a point of guaranteeing one thing: he wants a "stronger economy", he wants to "promote a change of government and policies" in the country, he wants "better salaries", a "more relaxed middle class", young people with "more hope" and public services that "respond". After the first meeting in Belém, before returning to be nominated, Montenegro also welcomed the PS's "sense of responsibility" in signaling the viability of the amending SB.

The PSD and CDS - who formed the AD coalition - were the last to be heard by the head of state after the early parliamentary elections on March 10. The emigrant votes (which count for the election of four deputies) began to be counted on Monday and during Wednesday they continued to show the same trend: two deputies for Chega, one for AD and one for PS (with the current president of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, missing out on the election in the Out of Europe constituency). The final result remained unchanged.