2014 european parliament election in portugal

Source: 2014 European Parliament election in Portugal

An election was held in Portugal on Sunday, 25 May 2014, to elect the Portuguese delegation to the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019. This was the seventh European Parliament election held in Portugal.
The Socialist Party (PS) was the winner of the elections, scoring 31.5 percent of the votes. The Socialists increased their share of vote by almost 5 percentage points, and won one more seat compared with 2009. However, the PS victory was much more weaker than what polls predicted, as the margin between them and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and CDS – People's Party (CDS) coalition was below 4 points. Because of this worse than expected result, the PS would enter in a leadership contest just weeks after the election.
The PSD/CDS contested the election in a coalition called "Portugal Alliance". The coalition achieved one of the worst results ever, as PSD+CDS never polled below 30 percent, but the weak result by the coalition was softened by the close margin between them and the Socialists.
The Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) scored their best result since 1989, polling almost 13 percent of the vote and winning one more seat compared with 2009. On the other hand, the Left Bloc (BE) suffered a huge defeat by erasing their 2009 historic results. The BE won 4.6 percent of the votes, a drop of more than 6 points, and was only able to elect their top candidate Marisa Matias, compared with the three seats they won in 2009.
The big surprise of the elections was the extraordinary result of the Earth Party (MPT). Headed by the former bar association chairman António Marinho e Pinto, MPT won 7.2 percent of the votes and was able to elect two members to the European Parliament. To add also, that LIVRE, headed by BE dissident Rui Tavares, was not able to win a seat, although scoring 2.2 percent.
Turnout fell to the lowest level ever, with only 33.7 percent of voters casting a ballot.