The Socialist Costa won the elections in Portugal …

From Madrid

The Socialist Party of Prime Minister António Costa won the parliamentary elections in Portugal. Government forces won 36.6% of the vote, and although it is not enough to form a solo executive, that will be enough with the modest support of one of the forces on his left, as was the case. in 2015. only the setback for the socialist leader came out of the polls. The abstention reached a record 45.5% of the electorate.

The main opposition force, the Social Democratic Party, won 27.9% of the vote and was far from the first place in 2015. Third place went to the left bloc with 9.7%. , which is consolidated as the third largest political force and could be the key to Costa's formation of a new government.

Fourth, and with a result lower than that obtained in the last elections, the Communist Party, which attended these elections in alliance with the Greens. Despite the setback, Communist leader Jorge Pires said the votes they won would allow them to continue fighting for the workers and the people. The surprises of these elections were supported by small parties that will enter Parliament. The Animal Party, which will enter three deputies, and the Chega formation, of radical cut of the style of Vox in Spain, and the Party of the liberal initiative, which will each count one deputy.

After dawn in the Iberian Peninsula, Prime Minister António Costa appeared before leaders and activists of the Socialist Party to celebrate the triumph of his strength. On the one hand, the leader of the PS said that the Portuguese wanted a new socialist government "strengthened to govern stably in the next legislature"; and, on the other hand, he has reached out to the leftist forces with whom he will need to reach an agreement. "The Portuguese liked the syringe (the PS alliance with BE and the Communist Party) and they wanted the continuity of the current political solution with a stronger PS," Costa said.

The possibility of repeating the agreement was on the table even before Costa celebrated the socialist triumph. After hearing the results, leftist bloc leader Catarina Martins said that "the Socialist Party has all the conditions to form a government and the BE is ready to negotiate a solution that offers stability to the country". The economic agenda of the BE is not far from that promoted by the PS and its social proposals, such as the right to euthanasia, are acceptable by socialism.

The victory of socialism and the development of the future executive will be heard beyond the borders of the Portuguese country. In a little over a month, Spain, neighboring country, holds the second general election of the year and the socialist leader Pedro Sanchez hopes to obtain a favorable result to govern alone or reduce distances with the parliamentary majority needed to form a government. If Costa is inclined to seek support from the BE, similar to the Spanish Podemos, Spanish voters could suggest a similar equation between the PSOE and the force led by Pablo Iglesias.

On the other hand, the continuity of the PS in the Portuguese government will allow anti-austerity rhetoric to remain alive in the European Union, where neoliberal hawks dominate, resulting in wage, pension and policy cuts. the last ten years. Alarm signals of a possible recession within the European bloc have brought the debate back on the measures to be applied to overcome the economic slowdown. In this context, the government of António Costa will be able to say that its anti-austerity management gave good economic results and that it was also supported during the polls.