Luxembourg, 05/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The centre-right coalition led by the outgoing Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, won the general elections in Portugal on Sunday 4 October, with 38.6% of the votes, compared to 32.4% for the Socialist opposition.
The governmental alliance formed by the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and its minority ally, the People's Party (CDS-PP, Conservative) won 104 of the 230 seats which make up the national parliament. However, it failed to hang on to the absolute majority it had enjoyed the last four years.
On behalf of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker congratulated Passos Coelho on the victory of the PSD, on Monday 5 October, announced Margaritis Schinas, spokesperson to the European institution. “This victory confirms the will of the majority of people to stay the course of reforms”, he added.
However, it will be no simple matter to form a stable centre-right government, as the Left put together have most of the seats in the Parliament: - 85 seats for the Socialist Party; - 19 seats for the Left Bloc, a group which is affiliated to the Greek party Syriza; - 17 seats for the coalition of the Communist Party and the Greens. “Forming a government in Portugal will not be easy”, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, himself acknowledged upon his arrival at the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg.
Four seats reserved for overseas representatives will be allocated by mid-October. The abstention rate, 43%, breaks the record of 41.9% set in 2011.
These general elections were the first to be held in Portugal since the country came out of the bailout plan in spring 2014. Since then, Lisbon has returned to financial autonomy, despite the upheavals of the Greek crisis. The Portuguese economy returned to growth in 2014 (growth of GDP of +0.9%) and is expected to grow further this year (+1.6%). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)