Presidential candidate Gouveia e Melo is embarking on his election campaign without the support of any party machine, instead banking on his “independent brand” and his fame across the country through direct contact with the public.
Henrique Gouveia e Melo will end his campaign on 16 January in Lisbon. Still, his candidacy does not yet say that the admiral will make the traditional descent from Chiado. This street action is always present in the programmes of the main Portuguese parties.
Without a party structure to contact and mobilise its members in a few days, the team of the former Chief of Staff of the Navy says it will rely on volunteers and district coordinators, many of whom have no experience in political activity.
Alternatively, it is believed that independence will be a “powerful” factor in a presidential election “against seven party opponents” and could compensate for organisational difficulties, especially in terms of mobilising supporters.
During the official campaign period, Gouveia e Melo will hold three or four events per day, including street actions, visits to companies or associations, and lunches and dinners with supporters. At these meetings with supporters, there will always be an admiral’s speech at the end.
Gouveia e Melo will begin his tour for the 18 January elections on Friday in the Algarve, and on Saturday he will be between Sintra and Óbidos. On Sunday, he will have the official launch lunch for his campaign at the Bairro da Boavista pavilion in Lisbon, after visiting the Feira do Relógio in the morning.
The road, in practice, begins on Monday in Campo Maior, in the district of Portalegre – a journey that will pass through Portalegre and Viseu.
During the official campaign period, between 4 and 16 January, Gouveia e Melo will visit all the districts in the north of the country, but will not be in Beja, Évora, Guarda or Castelo Branco, nor in the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores. However, according to his candidacy, he has already visited both the autonomous regions and the aforementioned districts in the interior of the country during the pre-campaign period.
His team has also made no commitment to favouring the largest urban centres or the coastline of the national territory. On the contrary, it seeks to emphasise that territorial cohesion, with the idea of “Portugal at one speed”, is one of the main themes of the admiral’s campaign, alongside health, housing, security and social cohesion.
Similarly, no target voters are assumed during the campaign period. However, it is recognised that the former Chief of Staff of the Navy will be stronger among elderly and female voters “of all age groups and social classes”.
In the final stretch of the campaign, starting on the 9th, the admiral will visit the districts of Braga, Viana do Castelo, Aveiro, Porto, Vila Real, Viana do Castelo, Setúbal, Santarém and Lisbon.
Between 7 January and the last day of the campaign, 16 January, he will visit the district of Porto three times, Greater Lisbon three times and Braga twice.
The presidential elections are scheduled for 18 January 2026, with a record number of 11 candidates.
In addition to Gouveia e Melo, Luís Marques Mendes (supported by the PSD and CDS), António Filipe (supported by the PCP), Catarina Martins (Left Bloc), António José Seguro (supported by the PS), painter Humberto Correia, trade unionist André Pestana, Jorge Pinto (supported by Livre), Cotrim Figueiredo (supported by Iniciativa Liberal), André Ventura (supported by Chega) and musician Manuel João Vieira.
This is the 11th democratic election for the President of the Republic since 1976.