1998 Portuguese regionalisation referendum

[2] The creation of administrative regions in mainland Portugal was an electoral promise of the Socialist Party (PS) in the 1995 legislative election campaign.

[6] A year later, in March 1997, PS and PSD signed a Constitutional review in which a referendum would always have to be mandatory for the creation of administrative regions.

A consensus was reached between PS and PCP on the map, which proposed 8 administrative regions in mainland Portugal.

[8] The major parties in Portugal at the time listed with their political positioning and their official answer to the referendum question: The Socialist Party campaigned strongly in favour of the YES vote, defending that regions would help to resolve territorial poverty in Portugal.

[9] On the other side, the Social Democrats rejected the proposed map by calling for a NO vote, warning that regionalisation would raise taxes and would just create political jobs.