João Gabriel de Lima
Lisbon, Portugal (Folhapress) – Portuguese electoral campaigns traditionally end with the so -called “crushed” in Porto and Lisbon. Instead of speaking on a stage, leaders of the main parties prefer to walk through the historic center of the two largest cities, in direct contact with voters. Social democrat Luís Montenegro and socialist Pedro Nuno Santos, who vie for prime minister, used the runs for the same purpose: to appeal to the useful vote of voters on the right and left in the election on Sunday (18), the third that Portugal will have in just over three years.
Montenegro’s ruined final, the prime minister that competes for reelection, was on Friday (16) in the neighborhood of Baixa, a tourist heart of Lisbon-some foreigners took time to understand that it was a political event and made photos of the festive crowd with the background architecture of the place. “The only useful vote is the vote in the democratic alliance,” said Montenegro, referring to the center-right parties coalition that supports him. “The Portuguese are tired of elections.”
The prime minister is elected for four years, but the last in office did not complete the term. In 2021, the government of the socialist António Costa fell on when the budget was rejected by the Assembly of the Republic – algo that may occur within the rule of Portuguese parliamentarism. Costa was reappointed in advance elections, but fell again in 2023, on charges of corruption inside his office.
Centro-headist center Luís Montenegro was elected in March last year, in another early election, but did not complete a year of government amid charges of conflict of interest. A company owned by its family, Spinumviva, had contracts with suppliers who were related to the government, including a casinos owner. The game in Portugal is a public concession.
Prior to these sequences in sequence, Portugal had a political period with less turbulence. Costa himself ruled for nine years until he left last year. Its predecessor, Pedro Passo Coelho, was from 2011 to 2015, and José Sócrates was a prime minister for six years, from 2005 to 2011.
Montenegro’s phrase about Portuguese voters is based on opinion polls. Most citizens would like to have a government to complete their mandate. “For the Portuguese, stability is a value. It is a conservative view, sensitive to arguments such as maintaining the union of the country,” the Portuguese political scientist Jorge Fernandes, from the Superior Council for Scientific Research of Madrid. The current premie bets on a last -minute vote migration to his candidacy – algo that occurred precisely with António Costa in January 2022.
In his ruined Thursday (15), in Porto, the socialist Pedro Nuno Santos was even more explicit in the appeal to voters of other parties. “For those who vote for parties who can’t elect deputies, who do us the favor of voting for the PS. Our victory is the only one that allows AD to defeat and offer the country a progressive government.”
In Portugal, the left is more fragmented than the right. Among the parties or coalitions with parliamentary representation, two are right and five left – alien of the ultra -right represented by the arrival, acronym led by André Ventura.
A post-election agreement between AD and arrives would be unlikely. Montenegro rejected the covenant throughout his term, keeping the slogan “not no” of the 2024 election campaign. And Ventura, whose campaign was marked by two episodes in which he was ill during rallies, was the most vehement candidate attacks on the current premier, whom he recurrently called corrupt.
Despite remote chances of an alliance, AD has made a possible wave of arrival voters. Earlier this month the government announced an immigrant deportation plan. Although the repatriation of non -document foreigners is common in the European Union, the announcement’s “timing” led analysts and candidates – as Mariana Mortágua, from the left block – to accuse Montenegro of electoral maneuver.
The creation of harder laws against immigrants is a historical platform of arrival, which houses xenophobic wings. The useful vote of these voters in AD could give Montenegro the dreamed absolute majority.
