General election
Big bang in Portugal: Right-wingers make strong gains in the election
The Portuguese center-right Democratic Alliance party has won the parliamentary election according to initial forecasts. photo
© Armando Franca/AP/dpa
Portugal has long been considered a bulwark against right-wing extremists. But corruption, housing shortages and other social and economic problems have probably put an end to this choice of direction.
The official count also seemed to confirm media forecasts that the Socialist Party (PS), which has been in power since the end of 2015 and led by top candidate Pedro Nuno Santos, may have only come in second place this time behind Luís Montenegro’s conservative Democratic Alliance (AD). However, the race for first place was still completely open late in the evening, as the AD initially came to just over 30 percent and the horsepower to just under 29 percent.
Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called the vote in November after the Socialist Prime Minister António Costa resigned in the wake of a corruption scandal and remained in office only in an acting capacity.
Forming a government could be difficult
A “grand coalition” between PS and AD is considered impossible. Montenegro will therefore probably have to rely on agreements with smaller parties. The 51-year-old trained lawyer will rely primarily on the Liberal Initiative (IL), which can expect up to seven percent. However, both parties are far from having a majority capable of governing. In view of the looming difficulties in forming a government, observers predicted a new election in the summer before the vote.
Montenegro does not want to negotiate with the Chega party. In Portugal – similar to the AfD in Germany – there is still a so-called firewall to the right.
At home and abroad, the Socialists’ earlier success was hailed as the “Portuguese miracle.” After the euro debt crisis, Costa led the former EU problem child very solidly for years. Spending discipline but also social responsibility characterized his work. Over the years, the economy has almost always grown above the EU average, and unemployment and debt have been steadily reduced.
Several corruption scandals, including at the state airline TAP, put an end to the success story. At its peak, Costa faced allegations of corruption in lithium and hydrogen projects in November. According to the current status of the investigation, the 62-year-old was not personally guilty of anything.
The election was also characterized by social and economic problems such as housing shortages and inflation, which hit the low-wage country particularly hard – and which, according to observers, also provide breeding ground for the shift to the right. Since the end of the pandemic, Portugal has been overwhelmed by an increasing wave of strikes: doctors, teachers, police officers and many others are protesting ever louder.