In Portugal, presidential elections aren't formally partisan, although all major parties usually endorse a candidate from their ranks.

On elections for the Assembly of the Republic, the two-party coalition was only tried once, in the 2015 legislative election, as Portugal Ahead (Portuguese: Portugal à Frente, PàF), and it polled ahead with almost 39% of the votes, but was unable to remain in power as it didn't gain enough seats for a majority.

[4] Although the coalition won the elections, and surprised many analysts and pundits, the left parties together had a majority in Parliament, and opted to negotiate a confidence-and-supply agreement, thus refusing to allow for a second PSD/CDS-PP cabinet.

For the first time in Portuguese democracy the Socialist Party, the second most voted political force in the elections, negotiated with the BE, the PCP and the PEV a formation of a new government.

Following the fall of the short-lived 20th Constitutional Government, the "natural" extinction of the coalition was declared on 16 December 2015 by Passos Coelho: "No formal act is necessary to put an end to it".