Only 23.38% of registered voters in the Algarve bothered to vote in Sunday’s European Election, but the majority of those who did, voted for the socialists.
The Partido Socialista received 28% of the Algarve’s vote, while the ruling parties’ 'Alliance Portugal’ came in second with 24%.
The map of the Algarve is now an uninterrupted socialist band with all but one of the neighbouring Alentejo council areas also flying the socialist flag.
Monchique was an example to us all with a ‘stay in bed’ rate of just 55%. This was well below the national average of 66%.
The big success story was the Partido da Terra (Earth Party) which got 9% of the votes in Lagos and 7.4% of all the Algarve’s votes, coming fourth in the country.
The Left Bloc’s national collapse was not mirrored in Portimão where it still got 9% of the votes, more than double the number nationally. In the Algarve the number of votes received dropped by 17%.
