During a televised statement to the country, outgoing Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates conceded that he had made “some mistakes”. He said: “This is my electoral defeat, and I assume complete responsibility for it.”
The winner of Sunday’s election was Pedro Passos Coelho, leader of the Social Democrats, who is now expected to form a centre-right coalition government with the conservative Popular Party.
The margin of Mr Passos Coelho’s victory was emphatically decisive. His party won nearly 40 per cent of the vote compared to just under 30 per cent for the Socialists.
Portugal is now set to suffer severe public spending cuts, much like those being pushed through in Britain by the Conservative-led coalition. In his triumphant victory speech, Mr Passos Coelho warned the Portuguese public to brace themselves for serious belt-tightening measures, which he promised during the election campaign. He said: “We must have courage, we must have patience. We know the results will not happen in two days. It will be hard but it will be worth it.”
Reeling from the aftermath of the global economic crisis – brought on by bankers who took advantage of the lack of regulations in the banking sector to make even more money for themselves – Portugal has been forced to go cap in hand to the Troika – the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – for a bailout.
Portugal’s gross domestic product is predicted to shrink by some 4 per cent over the next two years while unemployment, currently standing at over 12 per cent, is expected to rise to 13 per cent next year.
Europe’s centre-left parties have been losing ground across the continent because of the actions of fat cat bankers whose lust for money knew no bounds. From Britain to Sweden – and now Portugal – the European left is taking the public rap for economic woes for which it was not responsible but on which, ironically, the European right has been quick to capitalise.
Europe now has a number of centre-right governments, lined up in a row, some of which came to power simply because they were not the ones in office when the economic crisis hit the continent like a tornado.
