The Socialists received 41.7% of the vote and 117 of the 230 seats in parliament.
Under the complex electoral system, the party needed at least 41% of the vote to secure an absolute majority.
In his victory speech on Monday, Kosta promised dialogue and confirmed that he would rule for the benefit of all Portuguese.
Almost all polls before the election predicted that the Socialists would not gain an absolute majority and that Kost would continue to have to rely on the support of small left-wing parties.
Only 27.8% of voters voted for the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), the largest opposition party, with 71 seats in parliament.
Košta has been in power since 2015 and has led two minority governments with the support of small left-wing parties. In the last elections in the autumn of 2019, his party won 36.3%, securing 108 of the 230 seats in parliament.
Following Parliament’s rejection of the 2022 budget, Portuguese President Marcel Ribel di Soza called new elections in early November.
Both the Conservative opposition and the left-wing parties, which had supported Kosice in previous years, voted against the budget.
The Left Bloc (BE) and the Coalition for Democratic Unity (CDU), formed by the Communists and the Greens, demanded more public spending.
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