The month of January 2022 was, without a doubt, marked by the Portuguese Legislative Elections. After having seen its budget proposal for 2022 voted down in parliament, the Government was dissolved by the President of the Republic, who scheduled elections for January 30, 2022.

In this way, the country was plunged back into a political tide, shortly after the September 2021 Local Elections.

Regardless of the result, there is one factor to take into account: the Abstention Rate.

According to PORDATA, since the Revolution of April 25, 1974 (8.47%), the trend in the Abstention Rate has been rising, having reached levels never seen before in the 2019 legislative elections, in which the figure reached 51 .43%, that is, more than half the population entitled to vote did not exercise it.

The 2022 elections were a pleasant surprise as far as the Abstention Rate is concerned. For the first time since 2005, there was a drop, with an abstention rate of 42.03% (as of today), which is well below expectations and which breaks a worrying trend for Democracy.

At a time when extremist parties are appearing all over the world it is now more important than ever to view the right to vote as a duty, because "Those who fall asleep in Democracy, wake up in Dictatorship".