Stormy political times likely lay ahead for Portugal after a general election delivered a minority government.
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A minority administration has not survived a full term in Portugal since the 1974 overthrow of the fascist regime. Their average life span is 14 months. The center-right coalition government earned another four-year term Sunday, winning a general election behind an improving economy that weathered the austerity measures contested across Europe, but falling short of a crucial outright majority in Parliament. The Social Democratic Party and junior Popular Party collected nearly 37 percent and 99 seats in Parliament, with four seats from votes overseas still to be allocated.
Faced with a majority of the left in parliament, the new government risks a period of deadlock.
But economists said yesterday reforms needed to help the indebted country’s meagre growth after a steep recession in 2011-13 would be more hard to pass and the austerity-minded government could face political turmoil next year. Another paper, Publico, said the ballot “left the country in an impasse”.
President Anibal Cavaco Silva was due to begin meetings with party leaders Monday to decide on how to advance. The main opposition center-left Socialist Party has 85 seats, the left Bloc 19 and the Communist Party/Green Party alliance 17.
But there is a political gulf between the Socialists and the others.
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LISBON, Portugal (AP) – Senior Portuguese officials are starting the delicate task of installing a stable government after a general election that complicated as much as it clarified the country’s future.
