The Portuguese parliamentary elections will take place next Sunday with the most recent poll pointing to an above 30% abstention rate and the current austerity government reelection.
The very last Portuguese parliamentary election poll has the conservative party ahead by up to 5% over the runners-up the left-wing socialist party.
Today’s prime minister Passos Coelho said in a press conference that “there’s still a lot to be done”, referring to his government possible re-election. His government succeeds in averaging 1.5 GDP growth rate for the current year and lead the country successfully out of the bail-out period.
“There’s a lot still to be done”
Portuguese prime minister
Radical Party movement in Portugal (weak to non-existing)
The leader of CDS, the current government coalition party, told TVI24 that “Moderate parties have traditionally held power in Portugal, even through austerity policies. This election won’t be any different.”
Like Ireland, Portugal has not witnessed the rise of any radical parties like Syriza in Greece, or Podemos in Spain.
Possible government second mandate reelection with the parliament left-wing majority.
Even with the current government coalition party winning this Sunday’s election, it’s expected the majority in parliament to be left-wing. The Portuguese CDU leader, Jerónimo de Sousa said in “RTP Noticias” TV channel that “even with the left-wing parliament majority there’s no way of enabling a joint parliamentary group with the government, and that there will be surely hard governing conditions head.”
“The country deserves to wake up next Monday to a government that rewards political and financial achievement.”
Portuguese prime minister
The Portuguese prime minister commented in TVI24 that “the country deserves to wake up next Monday to a government that rewards political and financial achievement.”
Portugal’s future government Foreign Policy
Either way, both Passos Coelho (center/right-wing) or António Costa (left-wing) will become the next Portuguese prime-minister.
The austerity policies tried to bring down the Portuguese deficit and it kind of worked. But debt is still growing too high. The socialist solution to raise internal consumption don’t seem enough. Structural reforms are needed.
However, Costa made clear that support for the government would depend on Passos Coelho moderating austerity policies and providing guarantees for social services and employment.