LISBON: Portugal’s Prime Minister Antonio Costa prepared on Monday to govern solo after his Socialist party scored a surprise landslide win, with economic recovery from the pandemic among his top priorities.
His party secured a parliamentary majority in Sunday’s snap elections, which also saw the far-right Chega party make significant gains.
The Socialists received 41.7 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s snap polls, giving it 117 seats in the 230-seat parliament, up from 108 in the outgoing assembly.
Four seats still need to be attributed in the coming days from the results of votes cast abroad, but in 2019 the Socialists obtained two.
The results defied final polls which had suggested that the Socialist were in a statistical tie with the main opposition centre-right PSD, which finished second with 76 seats.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was expected to formally invite Costa, who has headed two minority governments since 2015, later this week to form a new government.
“The conditions have been created to carry out investments and reforms for Portugal to be more prosperous, fairer, more innovative,” Costa said in his victory speech.
The prospect of a stable government is crucial for Portugal to make the most of a €16.6 billion package of EU recovery funds it is due to receive by 2026. Portugal’s economy is starting to recover after shrinking 8.4 per cent in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic hurt its key tourism sector and other businesses. It rose by 4.9 per cent in 2021, its fastest pace since 1990, boosted by growing exports and investment, national statistics institute INE said on Monday.
Costa has said he would like to use the bulk of the EU funds to modernise Portugal’s infrastructure to make it more competitive.
Until now the former Lisbon mayor had to rely on support from two far-left parties — the anti-capitalist Left Bloc and the Communist Party — to govern.
“Without being tied down to the radical left, the Socialists and Costa have the opportunity to apply a more centrist and European recipes,” daily newspaper Publico wrote in an editorial.
This is only the second time that Portugal has a Socialist government with an outright majority in parliament since the country returned to democracy in 1974 following the end of a decades-long dictatorship.
Sunday’s polls were called after the two far-left parties that had propped up Costa’s minority government sided with right-wing parties to reject his 2022 draft budget in October.
The radical left had pushed for more social spending and wanted a faster rise in the minimum wage than what was promised by Costa, but both lost seats. — AFP
