Portugal’s ruling Socialist Party has won an unexpected outright majority in Sunday’s snap general election. The election was called when Prime Minister António Costa failed to pass a budget after losing the support of two smaller parties.
While economic recovery is still an unknown quantity, in his hour of triumph Mr Costa has emphasized the need for stability. The far-right party, Chega, also increased its support and will be the third-largest in parliament. The result comes as a surprise after polls suggested that the Socialist Party had lost most of its advantage in the run-up to the vote.
In his victory speech, the Prime Minister promised he would govern for everyone. The core of his praxis has been enunciated with his statement ~ “An absolute majority doesn’t mean absolute power. It doesn’t mean governing alone. It’s an increased responsibility.”
The Socialist Party won 117 seats in the 230-seat parliament, up from 108 in the outgoing legislature. The main opposition bloc, the centre-right Social Democrats won 71 seats. On closer reflection, the Socialists’ victory means that Portugal is likely to have a stable government to lead the country out of the pandemic, and to administer a Euro 16.6bn ($18.7 billion) package of EU recovery funds.
The far-right Chega has won 12 seats; its leader, former TV sports commentator André Ventura, had grabbed headlines by railing against corruption and the Roma community, and calling for chemical castration for sex offenders. Mr Ventura greeted Sunday’s result as marking the end of “soft” opposition to the Socialists. On his part, Mr Costa said that if as expected Portugal’s President now asks him to form a government, he would be amenable to dialogue with all political forces except Chega.
More than a tenth of Portugal’s 10 million people were estimated to be in isolation due to Covid-19 during the election, but the government allowed them to vote in person. Electoral officials wore protection suits to receive them. Mr Costa has immediately offered an olive branch to his political adversaries. He is expected to encourage alliances with other parties in parliament to address the country’s economic difficulties, embedded in the pandemic. “The mission is to turn the page on the pandemic and bring the affected sectors back to life,” he said in a victory speech.
The stakes are high for the next administration not the least because Portugal is the poorest country in western Europe. The economy is said to have struggled to gain traction ever since the turn of the century. Mr Costa may need to display more of his political shrewdness to forge, despite his outright majority, yet another cross-party alliance, one that gives the government an inclusive face.