“Suddenly Portuguese voters see that there really is no alternative” to austerity, political analyst Jose Antonio Passos Palmeira told AFP.
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Duarte Cordeiro, head of Socialist leader Antonio Costa’s campaign, said that if the projections are confirmed, it would leave the Socialists short of their goal of forming a government themselves. Portugal goes to the polls to elect a new go…
Socialist leader Antonio Costa says it’s time to “turn the page on austerity”.
The first exit polls, released at 8 p.m., local time, showed the coalition of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho ahead with between 38 and 43 percent of the vote, followed by the Socialist Party in second, with between 30 and 35 percent.
Analysts warn that Portugal risks a period of political instability just as it seeks to safeguard an economic recovery after emerging from a debt crisis.
Passos Coelho’s social democratic coalition government has been in power since 2011, and they have approved austerity measures and worldwide financial agreements to attempt to weather the country’s financial crisis.
Portugal’s economy returned to slow growth last year after a three-year recession and is now expanding by 1.6 percent.
The Socialist Party had hoped it could benefit from the backlash to the austerity measures and win the election.
“You don’t want a government with a weak position in parliament”, said Steven Santos, a broker at Banco de Investimento Global SA in Lisbon.
Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho proves there’s life for Europe’s politicians after austerity.
The jobless rate has since fallen to 12% from a peak of 17.5% at the beginning of 2013. Traditionally, the two mainstream – and moderate – parties have alternated in power.
Portugal’s center-right coalition government won another four-year term Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
Coelho led the first coalition government to survive a full term in office since a four-decade-long dictatorship ended in 1974, and he was able to implement austerity without triggering the rise of parties such as Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece and Sinn Fein in Ireland.
The Portuguese government’s showing will give heart to Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government in neighboring Spain, which faces an election December 20.
To climb out of their debt hole the eurozone countries adopted a German-led remedy of government spending cuts and tax increases.
Sixteen political forces are running for this year’s elections, of which three are coalitions and the remaining are 13 parties.
“This election was a defeat for the PS more than anything else”, he said. It refuses to promise lower taxes, but says it will ease the fiscal burden as the economy improves.
After Costa accepted his loss, a jubilant Passos Coelho told his own supporters in Lisbon that he was ready to get to work.
But many believe the Socialists lost the propaganda battle.
But Tiago Amaral, a salesman unemployed for the past 18 months, said he opted for the Socialists because he was frustrated.
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“Nobody changes certainty for uncertainty”, he has said.
