After receiving Luís Montenegro at the Belém Palace and appointing him as prime minister, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa visited the Arco Lisboa contemporary art fair nearby, at the Cordoaria Nacional, for more than an hour.

At the end of the visit, as he was leaving the Cordoaria, the head of state signalled that he did not want to make any statements.

"I have nothing to say. The Prime Minister has been appointed and will now form a government", he replied.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa ended up adding that the inauguration of the new Government will be "next week, in principle".

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was appointed Prime Minister 11 days after the early legislative elections of May 18, which the AD (PSD/CDS-PP) coalition won, without an absolute majority.

Article 187 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic establishes that "the Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic, after consulting the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic and taking into account the election results".

Between Tuesday and Friday of last week, the Head of State heard from the ten parties that elected deputies in the early legislative elections of May 18: PSD, PS, Chega, IL, Livre, PCP, CDS-PP, BE, PAN and JPP.

The AD (PSD/CDS-PP), led by Luís Montenegro, won the legislative elections with approximately 31% of the votes – 31.79%, adding the votes of the AD on the mainland and Madeira with those of the PSD/CDS/PPM coalition in the Azores.

According to the results, the two coalition parties elected 91 deputies out of 230, of which 89 are from the PSD and two from the CDS-PP.

After the distribution of mandates for emigrants, Chega became the second largest parliamentary force, with 60 deputies, two more than the 58 elected by the PS, which had the most votes.

The IL remained the fourth largest party in parliament, with nine deputies, followed by Livre, with six, the PCP, with three, and the BE, PAN and JPP, with one each.

Luís Montenegro, who has been Prime Minister since April 2 of last year, after an eight-year cycle of PS government, will form his second executive, which will be the XXV Constitutional Government.