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05 October 2019The Portuguese center-left Socialist Party (PS) should win the elections to be held tomorrow in the country: on the eve of the vote, the polls give the PS headed by Prime Minister António Costa at least seven percentage points ahead of the rival Social Democratic Party ( PSD) center-right led by Rui Rio. Unlike other European countries, the electoral campaign was not dominated by the issue of immigration: on the contrary, in Portugal there is a broad consensus on the need to welcome migrants to meet the demand for unskilled jobs and to help compensate for the low birth rate. For this reason, Costa - who has reappointed after four years in power - has promised that if he is elected he will propose to make immigration easier by abolishing a quota system introduced by the previous center-right government. For its part, Rio would prefer to more cautiously find a balance between an open door policy and the needs of the country.
At the base of the problem there is above all the low birth rate, which threatens the financing of the welfare system also in the light of EU forecasts, according to which the population of Portugal will drop to 6.6 million in 2100 compared to the current 10.3 million . But the trump card of Costa remains the economy, which during the PS government has gone from a 0.19% growth in 2014 to 2.1% in 2018, while the unemployment rate has halved to about 6%.