The 26th of may marks the six-month anniversary of the current Portuguese government, which many thought wouldn’t make it far. Led by the centre-left Socialists, it survives thanks to the parliamentary support of the Communists and the Syriza-styled Left Bloc, even though the three parties have major disagreements on European policy. What makes this work?
Cátia Bruno EU Observer, 26 maio 2016
Every Portuguese political leader heaved a sigh of relief on 18 May. The European Commission decided to postpone a decision on whether to impose fines on Portugal and Spain for having excessive deficits. It was the result the leftist government, which celebrates its six months in power on 26 May, was hoping for. It was also what all the other parties and the centre-right president had been lobbying for in Brussels.
Former centre-right prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho asked Jean-Claude Juncker to let Portugal go unpunished, according to the Portuguese newspaper Expresso. Coelho's PSD party sided with the government because a fine imposed by the commission would reflect badly on their previous administration. “It was one of the few moments of complete unanimity on Portuguese politics,” Jose Adelino Maltez, a political scientist from the University of Lisbon, told EUobserver.
Behind the unanimity on this issue, however, there is serious disagreement. The centre-left Socialist Party (PS) leads a coalition supported by the more radical Left Bloc (BE) and the Communist Party (PCP), both of which are fiercely critical of the EU. The coalition was improvised after the PSD fell short of a majority following the election in October and the PS grabbed the opportunity to take power.
Yet somehow this unwieldy grouping has managed not only to approve the 2016 budget, but also to pass other measures such as a minimum wage increase, the reversal of privatisation schemes and the legalisation of same-sex adoption.