In Portugal, Prime Minister António Costa’s Socialist Party (PS) has won the parliamentary elections by a surprisingly large margin. The socialists achieved almost 42 percent of the votes, turned out in the night from Sunday to Monday according to newspaper Expresso after counting all votes. The conservative Social Democratic Party (PSD) comes in at 29 percent.
Also read: For many Portuguese, the minimum wage cannot increase hard enough
With this result, the 60-year-old Costa has even obtained an absolute majority in parliament of 117 of the 230 seats. In the complicated Portuguese electoral system, this required about 41 percent of the vote. That does not mean that PS no longer has an eye for other parties, the prime minister said in his victory speech. „An absolute majority does not mean absolute power […] It is an extra big responsibility and it means that we will rule with and for all Portuguese.”
António Costa has been prime minister since November 2015 and twice led minority cabinets with the support of the communists and the anti-capitalist Left Bloc. His government fell in November last year because the two radical left parties wanted higher minimum wages and more social protection than Costa thought was justified. The Communists and the Left Bloc both achieved disappointing results on Sunday.
In the parliamentary elections, the radical right-wing party Chega, which has gone from one to eleven seats, has made significant gains and is now the country’s third party.