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Veteran center-left politician Antonio Jose Seguro has won 66% of the vote, seeing off a challenge from the far-right.Antonio Jose Seguro of the center-left Socialist Party won the second round of the presidential election in Portugal on Sunday. With 99% of ballots counted, Seguro had won 66.7% of votes to secure a five-year term. Seguro saw off a challenge from the far-right populist Chega party's Andree Ventura, who won 33.3% of the vote. The 63-year-old will succeed conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. The Portuguese president is largely a figurehead with no executive power but can veto legislation, dissolve parliament and call early elections. Ventura said he will keep working to bring about a political "transformation" in Portugal. "I tried to show there’s a different way … that we needed a different kind of president," he told reporters. Portugal showed 'resilience' in holding election after storm disruption The election campaign had been upended by fierce storms that killed at least seven people. The disruption from the storms forced around 20 of the worst-hit constituencies to postpone the vote by a week, but it went ahead for nearly all the 11 million eligible voters in Portugal and abroad. European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Seguro on his win, adding that "Portugal’s voice for our shared European values remains strong." "The Portuguese citizens have spoken and, in the face of devastation caused by the storms, demonstrated remarkable democratic resilience," she wrote. French President Emmanuel Macron also congratulated Seguro, saying he would work with the new president to strengthen ties between Portugal and France. Who is Seguro? During the first round three weeks ago, Seguro came out top, with 31% support, but fell far short of an absolute majority. Seguro has positioned himself as a moderate who will cooperate with Portugal’s center-right minority government. The veteran politician returned from a teaching hiatus specifically for this race, which he has framed as a clear choice between democracy and radicalism. Far-right Chega candidate fails to secure presidency This contrasts with Ventura and his Chega (Enough) party, which has quickly grown in popularity since its founding seven years ago due to its leader's anti-establishment and anti-immigrant tirades. Ventura, a former TV sports commentator and lawyer, has also pushed for tougher action on corruption and crime, promising harsher sentences for criminals, including life imprisonment and chemical castration for sex offenders. During the campaign, Ventura put up billboards across the country saying, "This isn’t Bangladesh" and "Immigrants shouldn’t be allowed to live on welfare." He promised strong state support for those on low incomes, but only for Portuguese nationals. Although Chega was founded just seven years ago, it quickly grew to become the second-largest party in parliament following the general election in May 2025. Portuguese hope for political stability The May 2025 election was Portugal's third general election in three years in the country's worst bout of political instability for decades. Previous administrations collapsed amid corruption and conflict of interest scandals, rising populism and unstable minority governments. Keeping stability will be a key challenge for the next president, especially as the center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) coalition, with 91 seats, still lacks an absolute majority in the 230-seat parliament. Edited by: Wesley Dockery and Karl Sexton