Portugal plunged into a political crisis

Antonio Costa enjoys a good popularity rating in Portugal, but the main risk is that of not winning again the absolute majority in the National Assembly and therefore finding himself in the same situation as now.

AFP - OLIVIER MATTHYS

Text by: Marie-Line Darcy

3 min

It is a political setback for the government of socialist Antonio Costa in Portugal.

His finance bill for 2022 was not passed by the deputies, the extreme left having refused to support the head of government.

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From our correspondent in Lisbon,

The Communist Party and the Left Bloc, a small far left party, have decided to vote against the state budget for next year.

The Socialists, who do not have a majority in Parliament, are thus unable to remain in government.

The extreme left parties have stuck to their positions to the end, demanding more socially and economically, in terms of labor law, retirement pensions, health and education.

These two parties, the PCP and the Bloc de Esquerda, joined forces with the Socialists in 2015 to form a kind of left-wing Portuguese-style union, unprecedented in more than forty years of democracy in the country.

A union not renewed in 2019 during the second legislative elections won by the Socialists.

The tension had worsened, and this time the divorce is pronounced.

Towards early elections

The President of the Republic, the conservative

, declared a few days ago that if the state budget was not voted, he would be obliged to dissolve the Assembly and convene early elections, as we are halfway through Prime Minister

second term

.

The latter had warned that he would not resign.

It is therefore up to the Head of State to decide what to do with this political crisis.

The President of the Republic maneuvered by playing the intermediary to avoid the tension of the situation, but it was wasted effort.

► 

This is Antonio Costa's second recent political setback, with the loss of Lisbon town hall following the municipal elections last October.

To everyone's surprise, it was the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, the right-wing party, the main party in the opposition, who won the town hall, considered the 3rd most important political office in Portugal after the head of government and the President of the National Assembly.

A situation which restored momentum to the right, which was only a shadow of itself.

A narrow margin of maneuver for Costa

Does Antonio Costa have the means to break the deadlock?

The Socialists pranced at the head of the last municipal election, despite the fall of some town halls including Lisbon.

They therefore remain the favorites of a new legislative election.

And personally, Antonio Costa enjoys a good popularity rating.

But the main risk is that of not winning again the absolute majority in the National Assembly and therefore of finding oneself in the same situation as at present.

With an extreme left which will continue to demand more social progress and, moreover, a right which goes up the slope and sharpens its arguments to return to power.

Costa, who believes he has given in a lot, has little room for maneuver.

Portugal may be entering a cycle of political crisis which it would do well without.

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