Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumPortugal Prime Minister re-elected as Socialists solidify position
Prime Minister António Costa of Portugal won Sundays national election, as voters rewarded his Socialist party for returning the country to robust growth and budgetary health.
The Socialists appeared likely to fall short of a majority of the 230 seats in Parliament, with a projected 106 seats - a net gain of 20.
But their margin of victory gave Mr. Costa plenty of leeway to negotiate an alliance with smaller parties, like the geringonça, or contraption, that brought him unexpectedly into office four years ago.
The Socialists won about 37% of the vote, according to preliminary results, with about two-thirds of the votes counted.
Costa, 58, has become a rare thing in Europe not only a Socialist head of government, but one who has overseen a solid economy, helped by tourism and foreign investors, and proved wrong the critics who had long caricatured the left as incapable of fiscal discipline.
At: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/06/world/europe/portugal-election-costa.html
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa votes in today's elections.
Costa, who took office in 2015 as head of a weak coalition government most critics predicted would fall apart, inherited an economy that had not grown in 13 years and 13% unemployment.
His abandoning IMF austerity policies - substituting these for an unorthodox mix of pension raises, increased public credit, and investor incentives - have led to growth averaging 2.5%, lower deficits, and an unemployment rate of 6.3%.
vsrazdem
(2,176 posts)sandensea
(21,530 posts)Don't they know that imposing Bushonomics "works" - and that kissing up to neo-cons means you're "a great reformer"?
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)The Anglo-supply side nonsense is a failure. It should be noted that the Socialist Party is just a few seats short of an outright majority
while the far right lost many seats. Iberia might hold a brighter future for Europe.
sandensea
(21,530 posts)A little like the bet between the Duke brothers in Trading Places.
"Hmm, let's see. Just how much economic disaster can people stand, and, with enough media psy-ops, still vote for the same neo-cons that caused it to begin with?"
"Wanna bet?"
"Sure! The usual: one dollar."