Portugal election: Socialist Party set to lead government for next four years

Ruling party falls short of overall majority but other left-leaning parties want to discuss forming alliances
Victorious: Portuguese Prime Minister and Socialist Party leader Antonio Costa raises his fist while addressing supporters following the announcement of election results in Lisbon
AP
Jason Collie7 October 2019

Portugal’s centre-left Socialist Party looks set to continue in government despite failing to win an overall majority in the country’s general election.

With 226 seats in the 230-seat parliament awarded in the official count, the Socialists reached 106 seats, compared with 77 for the second-place Social Democratic Party.

The parliament chooses a government, usually taken from the party that has the most members elected.

However, despite falling short of a parliamentary majority, the Socialists could take power as a minority government or pursue alliances with other left-of-centre parties to pass legislation - as they did in their last term with the Portuguese Communist Party and the radical Left Bloc.

Antonio Costa, the Socialist leader and incumbent prime minister, said he would start talks with other parties with the aim of securing a political agreement for the next four years.

“Political stability is essential for Portugal’s international credibility,” he said in a victory speech.

He said his prospective government will continue its efforts to improve debt-heavy Portugal’s public finances - a key achievement in his first term that endeared him to the Portuguese and to other European leaders keen to avoid a repeat of the continent’s recent financial crisis.

The Left Bloc, which had won 19 seats in the incomplete count, said it was ready to open negotiations with the Socialists on a government program.

The Portuguese Communist Party had 10 seats and the Christian Democrats five.

Small fringe parties also picked up a handful of seats, and some of them could be targets for the government to recruit support in parliament.

Mr Costa took power four years ago on a promise to undo austerity measures introduced during Europe’s financial crisis, when Portugal needed an international bailout and now his Socialists reaped the rewards of Portugal’s economic rebound in recent years.

Annual growth climbed from 0.2 per cent in 2014 to 2.1 per cent in 2018, and unemployment dropped by around half, to 6 per cent, over that period.

The budget deficit - long a torment for Portugal as governments routinely overspent - is now close to zero under the financial stewardship of finance minister Mario Centeno, who also chairs the meetings of finance ministers from the 19 European nations that used the shared euro currency.

Mr Centeno is expected to continue in the post.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press

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