António Pedro Santos / Lusa
Pedro Nuno Santos
Even if the PS does not win the elections. Never on the right managed to govern Portugal for two legislatures in a row since 1995.
Hannibal Cavaco Silva was Prime Minister of Portugal between 1985 and 1995. This was the Last time the PSD (alone or in right coalition) led a government in Portugal during two legislatures in a row.
In fact, there were even three: victory in the 1985 elections, in the early 1987 and again in 1991 – the latter two with the absolute majority and the best results ever in legislatures in Portugal.
From 1995, the right has never achieved prolonged stability in a government, or several governments.
António Guterres Won this year and won in 1999, but lost in the early 2002 elections: Durão Barroso He was the first leader of a right -wing right government.
Lasting shortly: after an ephemeral passage of Pedro Santana Lopes (the unexpected successor of the European Durão Barroso), José Socrates won the early 2005 elections.
Four years later, again Socrates, this time with an absolute majority. Two legislatures followed for the PS.
In 2011 we returned to the early elections and there Pedro Passos Coelho He put right again (PSD and CDS, in a post-election understanding) in the government.
Four years later, it seemed that, for the first time in the 21st century, the right would govern Portugal in two legislatures in a row, as the PSD-CDS coalition was the most voted political force. But António Costa It moved quickly and formed a left-wing coalition that ruled and lasted until 2019.
This year, Vitória de António Costa, repeated in 2022 (absolute majority) in early elections.
Last year, again early elections and, almost a decade later, the right went back to govern thanks to the AD victory, with Luís Montenegro as Prime Minister.
That is, in 21st century, And in fact in the last 30 years, the PS has always managed to rule in legislatures in a row: Two for Guterres, two for Socrates, three to Costa.
A right, Whether with PSD alone or in coalition, it never formed government in two legislatures in a row. Attention: has already won two elections in a rowThanks to Pedro Passos Coelho – but in 2015 the “sprint” of the left crashed the bis from the right.
In short: if this sequence remains, Luís Montenegro will not be able to lead two governments in a row and Pedro Nuno Santos will be the next Prime Minister from Portugal (even if the PS is not the most voted political force).
It can just be a curiosity, a coincidence. It may be more than that: as after the 2022 legislative elections, and as confirmed in this article, the PS has been mastering the governments of Portugal since 1995. Because, in the last 30 years, there has been a socialist prime minister for 22 (at the time it would be 23 years, but António Costa has fired in the meantime).
O 21st century Portugal is facing the left.
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, Zap //
