Portugal began to keep the third early elections in just over three years. Last night (Tuesday 11 March), the center -right minority government lost a vote of confidence, requested after the Prime Minister of the Social Democratic Party (which in Portugal is center -right), Luís Montenegro, who took office less than a year ago, was involved in a scandal of conflict of interest.
In Portugal begins the Montenegro era, but it does not seem destined to last long
A company owned by the premier’s wife and children has provided advice to large groups that benefit from contracts with the government. A last minute attempt to find a compromise with the Socialist Party, in the opposition, through a commission of investigation has failed.
Distrust
It was Premier himself who asked for the vote of trust last week, claiming to want to clarify whether his government had “all the conditions” to carry on his program. In the end, the socialists and the far -right Chega party, the two major opposition groups, voted against the executive, making it fall. Together, the two political forces count more than half of the parliamentarians. To vote against was also the radical left.
The fall of the government could delay fundamental decisions, including the privatization plan of the TAP SA state airline, scheduled for this year, and investments in infrastructure, such as high -speed railway connections. Now it is up to the president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to decide whether to dissolve the Parliament.
Early elections
The elections could be held on 11 or 18 May. The most recent surveys give the socialist party slightly in the lead on the conservatives of the democratic alliance of Montenegro, with about 30 percent of the votes. Chega’s extreme right is in third place with about 17 percent.
Montenegro, 52, is at the helm of the Social Democratic Party, which in Europe has been part of the popular family, since 2022, and has declared that she will try to be re -elected premier. It will probably be a tight race against the socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos.
