Portuguese parliament ends impasse, elects four Constitutional Court judges but fails to appoint new ombudsman
After months of deadlock, the Assembly of the Republic voted in four new judges for the Constitutional Court on Friday, while a second attempt to name a new Ombudsman fell short of the required two-thirds majority.
Judges elected after months of negotiations
Following a series of failed votes, the Portuguese parliament succeeded in filling the four vacant seats on the Constitutional Court. A joint list of candidates submitted on 29 May by the centre-right PSD, the Socialist Party (PS) and the right-wing Chega obtained 176 votes in favour, above the two-thirds qualified majority of 154.
Os quatro nomes resultam de uma lista conjunta acordada entre PSD, Chega e PS, entregue no Parlamento a 29 de maio.
Voter counts differed slightly between reports: either 203 or 207 of the 230 deputies cast ballots, with 19 blank votes and 12 invalid votes registered across all accounts.
The new Constitutional Court judges
The four elected judges are Joaquim Cardoso da Costa, former secretary of state and current director of the State Legal Centre (nominated by PSD); Maria Paula Ribeiro Faria, a full professor (also PSD); Gabriela Cunha Rodrigues, a judge and current chief of staff to the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (PS); and Luís Filipe Brites Lameiras, a former judge of the Lisbon and Porto courts of appeal (Chega).
They replace José António Teles Pereira and Gonçalo Almeida Ribeiro, who resigned in October 2025, and Joana Fernandes Costa and José João Abrantes, whose mandates had expired. Mr Abrantes, who served as president of the court, announced his resignation in May, effective upon the swearing-in of his successor, citing personal and institutional reasons. The next step will be the election of a new president of the Constitutional Court.
- Two TC judges resign, both originally nominated by PSD.
- First failed vote for Ombudsman; Socialist Tiago Antunes receives 104 votes.
- TC president José João Abrantes announces his resignation, effective upon replacement.
- PSD, Chega and PS submit a joint list of four candidates for the Constitutional Court.
- Parliament elects four TC judges with 176 votes; second Ombudsman vote fails.
Ombudsman election stumbles again
In a parallel vote, Luísa Neto – the candidate proposed by the PS and backed by the PSD – failed to secure the post of Provedor de Justiça (Ombudsman), garnering only 131 favourable votes, together with 58 blank and 18 invalid votes. The election required two-thirds of the deputies present, which, according to one calculation, meant at least 138 votes; she fell seven short.
This was the second unsuccessful attempt. The first, in April, saw Socialist Tiago Antunes collect just 104 votes, after which he declined to run again. The ombudsman’s office has been vacant since the start of the current legislature, when Maria Lúcia Amaral left to join the government as internal affairs minister – and subsequently resigned from that role earlier this month.
Other elections
Deputies also chose the parliamentary representatives for the National Mechanism for Monitoring the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a body that supervises the convention’s application. That election, requiring only a simple majority, passed with 191 votes in favour, 14 blank and 2 null.
Political reactions
No party commented immediately on the ombudsman’s failed candidacy. Chega initially said it would address reporters but later opted to issue a statement at a future date. PSD parliamentary leader Hugo Soares pledged to renew efforts to elect Luísa Neto.
