Democratic Alliance leader Luís Montenegro named PM // Chega most-voted party among emigrants
A short Portuguese news update, in English, on Thursday, March 21, 2024.
Democratic Alliance leader Luís Montenegro named prime minister
Portugal has a new prime minister. Democratic Alliance leader Luís Montenegro met after midnight with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who appointed him to the position, Público reports. He won't have an absolute majority to govern with, owing to the closeness of the election results, but claimed a “relative majority” as the largest party in the newly constituted Assembly of the Republic.
Speaking before his appointment, the centre-right politician avoided addressing some of the major questions that will face the first months of his tenure. One of these is whether fellow right-wing party Liberal Initiative (IL) will form government along with coalition members the Social Democratic Party (PSD, which is Montenegro’s party) and CDS. Another is if the incoming government will attempt to pass an amended budget through the parliament to allow for spending necessary to carry out certain election promises.
Socialist Party (PS) head Pedro Nuno Santos, who will lead the opposition, offered his willingness to approve such a move, but only if it was limited to improving conditions for teachers, police, health workers and justice officials. Montenegro praised the “sense of responsibility” shown by the comments but wouldn't go into further detail about what he planned to do. He promised a stronger economy, better wages and relieving pressure on the middle class, and spoke of “giving hope to young people” and working on solutions for health, education and housing. Montenegro’s government will be sworn in on April 2, Diário de Notícias reports.
Chega most-voted party among emigrants
The final makeup of the parliament has been confirmed, with far-right party Chega claiming two of a possible four seats representing emigrant voters, Diário de Notícias reports. The strong showing by Chega, which was the most-voted party among Portuguese living abroad (whose votes were counted much later), dashed the Socialist Party’s hopes of drawing level with AD. The final results are AD with 80 MPs (78 from PSD and two from CDS) and 28.84% of votes, PS with 78 seats and 28% of the vote and Chega with 50 seats and 18.07%. IL finished with eight MPs, and the smaller left-wing parties — Left Bloc with five, Livre with four, the Portuguese Communist Party with four and People-Animals-Nature with one — claimed the remaining seats. Montenegro has repeatedly refused to make a formal agreement with Chega.
You can read more from Reuters in English.
Note: As I mentioned last week, I'm on vacation, so this is just a short update to let you know the latest. I'll be back with a full newsletter after Easter.