Portugal’s president dissolves Congress and calls early elections

President of Portugal decided to dissolve Parliament and the call for early parliamentary elections on January 30 to overcome the blockade caused by the rejection of the 2022 budget by the Socialist Executive, which has been cut off from its far-left allies.

budget rejection “It has completely reduced the base of support for the government.”Conservative head of state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in a televised address, while 2022 will be “a decisive year for a permanent exit from the epidemic and the social crisis that has hit us”.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who took power in 2015 at the helm of the minority executive backed by the left-wing bloc and the Communist Party, had already promised to campaign for a “strong, stable and permanent majority”.

On the right, the two conservative parties suffer from internal divisions that may benefit the far-right Chiga party.

Even before the rejection of the 2022 budget bill, which plunged Portugal into crisis a week ago, the president warned that he would bring forward elections normally scheduled for the fall of 2023.

The head of state was trying to force a compromise between the government and the radical left parties because, in his opinion, The Finance Act was “essential” to revitalizing the economy With the help of European funds from the post-Covid recovery plan.

However, extreme left parties voted against the budget, along with the right-wing opposition, ending an alliance unprecedented since the arrival of Portuguese democracy in 1974.

And 9 million Portuguese voters will be called to the polls for the third time in a year, after the presidential elections last January and the municipal elections at the end of September.

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