In Portugal, the government on the hot seat before the 2022 budget vote

Antonio Costa's socialist government, which has ruled Portugal since 2015 with the backing of the radical left, is on the line on Wednesday with a vote in Parliament on its 2022 budget proposal that the opposition has promised to to reject.

PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA AFP

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1 min

The political crisis seems to be confirmed in Portugal.

The socialists in power do not have a majority in Parliament and the far left on whom they were counting to pass the finance law for next year has slammed the door. 

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With our correspondent in Lisbon,

The political crisis should be confirmed when the 2022 bill is voted on Wednesday, October 27.

The far left has announced that it will not support the ruling Socialist Party's budget bill.

Dozens of days of negotiations have not changed anything, on the contrary the tone has hardened in recent days.

The two blocs accuse each other of blackmail and blame each other for the failure of the talks.

Dissolution in sight

It is indeed the end of a certain political idyll, seriously underway since 2019 and the second term of Antonio Costa.

However, communists, extreme left and socialists had succeeded in forming a union of the left, nicknamed the “gerinçonça”, in 2015. An unprecedented fact in 40 years of Portuguese democracy.

But since then, the far left has chained social and economic disappointments.

By voting against and not by abstaining, it blocks the Socialists who do not have a majority in Parliament.

The dissolution of the National Assembly is practically acquired.

Antonio Costa has no intention of resigning and will lead a transitional government until the early elections are called next January.

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