The right wins the elections in Portugal and aspires to regain the Government nine years later

2024-03-10 17:49:42

The results open the door to a Center-right executiveled by the AD parties together with the Liberal Initiative, which exit predictions place as fourth force in Parliament with a 7% of the votes. The sum of these parties would be enough to form a minority governmentled by the candidate Luis Montenegro, who will however be forced to reach agreements with the rest of the parties to carry out their legislative agenda. This result will foreseeably prevent AD from being forced to close a Government Agreement with the far-right Chega party, despite the fact that the party has confirmed all forecasts and has established itself as third political force with a 17% of the votesmore than double those obtained in 2022.

The results open the door to a center-right Executive, led by the AD parties together with Liberal Initiative, which exit predictions place as the fourth force in Parliament with 7% of the votes. The sum of these parties would be enough to form a minority Government, led by the candidate Luis Montenegrowho would however be forced to reach agreements with the rest of the parties to carry out their legislative agenda.

This result will foreseeably prevent AD from being forced to close a government agreement with the far-right party. He arrivesdespite the fact that the formation has confirmed all the forecasts and has established itself as a third political force with a 17% of the votesmore than double those obtained in 2022. “This result signals the end of the two-party system and that, according to all indications, there will be a strong right-wing majority to govern,” assured the leader of the party, Andre Ventura, who did not want to confirm whether he will give his parliamentary support to an eventual Executive without ministers from his party. “Starting tonight we have to start working so that there is a stable Government in Portugal,” he simply said.

Socialist defeat

The voters have penalized a PS very damaged for the case of alleged corruption that forced António Costa to resign as prime minister last November. A scandal for which he has not yet been charged but which has ended the comfortable absolute majority obtained in 2022, when a 41% of voters They gave their support to the socialists. The results have confirmed the fatigue of an important part of the voters with the current Government, despite the fact that the country has managed to maintain the path of economic growthreduce the unemployment rate and contain inflation below the European Union average.

The socialist candidate, Pedro Nuno Santos, assured during the campaign that he would make an AD Government viable in the event of a victory for the center-right coalition. A promise that, however, the socialist Minister of Parliamentary Affairs has avoided repeating this Sunday, Ana Catarina Mendes, shortly after knowing the first projections. “The Socialist Party must make a very strong opposition to what is coming,” said Mendes, who has lamented the rise of the extreme right. “Socialists must always be alert and make a firm opposition to attacks against conquered rights,” he explained.

Weakened left

The loss of support from the socialists has meant a slight improvement of left-wing parties, although it has not been enough to maintain a progressive majority in Parliament. According to exit polls, the Left Bloc obtains 6% of the votes (less than two points more than in the previous elections), while the coalition formed by the Portuguese Communist Party and The Greens (CDU) remains at the 4% achieved in 2022.

The left-wing European party Book is the one that improves its results the most, with up to a 5% of the votes (compared to just over 1% in 2022). At the close of this edition the permanence of the party was still up in the air People, Animals, Nature (PAN), which obtained a deputy two years ago and could be left without parliamentary representation on this occasion. While waiting for the final results, the main progressive parties agree in pointing out the poor results of the left in general terms, in the year in which the 50 anniversary of the return of democracy with the Carnation Revolution.

High participation

The elections have been marked by high participationclose to 65%. A result much higher than that of the 2019 and 2022 legislative elections and celebrated by the main parties, especially the right-wing parties, which maintain that it shows the will to change of the Portuguese after almost nine years of socialist government. Now it is in the hands of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousaappoint the new prime minister, who must form a Government and present his program to Parliament within a maximum period of ten days.