Lisbon, Portugal – Portugal will celebrate an early general election on May 18, announced the president of the country on Thursday, two days after a minority government lost a vote of trust In Parliament and retired.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has no executive power, but can dissolve the parliament and call elections, described the collapse of the government as a shock that was neither “expected nor dear.”
In a televised speech to La Nación, he urged voters to actively participate in the third general election of the European Union country in three years, saying that the continent faces rigid challenges to their security and economy that require political stability.
The fall of the Government of the center of the right on Tuesday in the midst of questions about the behavior of the prime minister brought The worst episode of political instability Since Portugal adopted a democratic system more than 50 years ago following the 1974 carnation revolution, which ended a dictatorship of four decades.
Portugal, which has a population of around 10.6 million people, has had a series of minority governments in recent years as traditional rivals for power, the Social Democratic Party on the right and the socialists of the central left, lost votes for growing smaller parties.
Minority governments have not been able to create commitments that may ensure that an administration completes their constitutional period of four years without opposition parties joining to block their policy proposals and knock it down.
The vote deepens political uncertainty as well as Portugal is in the process of investing more than 22 billion euros ($ 24 billion) in EU development funds.
The discontent of the voters with a return to the surveys could bring dividends for the Populist party of the right -wing (sufficient), which has fed frustration with the two conventional parties. Portugal has been caught in the Growing European Populism Mareawith Chega third in last year’s elections.
The Government, led by the Social Democrats in an alliance with a smaller party, fell in the midst of a controversy that has revolved around possible conflicts of interest in business businesses of the family law firm of the outgoing prime minister Luis Montenegro.
Montenegro, who says that he will defend re -election, has denied any irregularity. He said he placed control of the firm in the hands of his wife and children when he became a social democratic leader in 2022 and has not been involved in his career.
Recently it was learned that the company is receiving monthly payments from a company that has an important game concession granted by the Government, among other sources of income.
The Socialists demanded a parliamentary investigation into the behavior of Montenegro.
Social democrats hope that the economic growth estimated at 1.9% last year, compared to the average of 0.8% of the EU, and an unemployment rate of 6.4%, approximately the EU average, will maintain its stable support.
