In the Portuguese snap general election, the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister António Costa has unexpectedly obtained a single-party majority, British news portal The Guardian reports.
The result of the Sunday, January 30 election, came as a surprise after the Socialists had lost most of their advantage in recent opinion polls. It means Portugal will have a stable government to oversee the application of EU pandemic recovery funds.
Read also: Ukrainian and US presidents discuss efforts to establish peace in Ukraine
Costa stated in his victory speech early on Monday, January 31: «An absolute majority doesn’t mean absolute power. It doesn’t mean to govern alone. It’s an increased responsibility and it means to govern with and for all Portuguese.»
In the night to Monday, the Socialists were confirmed as winning 117 seats in the 230-seat parliament, up from 108 won in the 2019 election. Sunday’s election was triggered in December after the long-running deal between Costa’s minority government and its allies in the Portuguese Communist party and the Left Bloc broke down during negotiations over the 2022 budget, The Guardian wrote.
Portugal’s general election won by Socialist PM Costa
