Lunchtime event “Portugal has voted”, as part of the “Europe after the elections” series, held at the Representation of the State of Hessen to the EU, on Monday, 11 March 2024.

Stalemate, that’s the word that best defines the political situation in Portugal after the early legislative elections on Sunday, March 10, 2024.

As became clear at the end of the debate following the presentation of the election results by the Portuguese journalist, Mr. António Cascais, expressly came from Lisbon for this purpose at the invitation of the Representation of the Hessen Region to the European Union, these results (see graphs) hardly give any chance to either of the country’s two main political forces to form a stable government.

Indeed, as no party obtained an absolute majority and the end of bipartisanship was observed with the emergence of a third major political force (the Chega party), with which neither of the two main traditional Portuguese parties (PSD and PS) want to form a coalition, the possibility of forming a majority government is minimal.

As Mr. António Cascais mentioned during the debate, a minority government of the AD – the winning electoral coalition of PSD with two other parties, CDS (Centro Democrático e Social) and PPM (Partido Popular Monárquico) – would not “last more than 6 months” as it would be sabotaged both from the left (PS, BE, CDU, etc.) and from the right (Chega).

That is why, according to Mr. Cascais, new legislative elections will have to take place soon, which does not bode well for Portugal at a time when the country would need stability the most to continue its efforts for economic recovery and improvement of living conditions for the most disadvantaged sections of the population.

Mario Parrot