2015 Portuguese legislative election
Legislative election held in Portugal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2015 Portuguese legislative election was held on 4 October.[1] All 230 seats of the Assembly of the Republic were in contention.
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Registered9,684,922 
0.6%
0.6%Turnout5,408,092 (55.8%)
2.2 pp
2.2 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 October 2015
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All 230 seats in the Assembly of the Republic 116 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Registered | 9,684,922 0.6% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 5,408,092 (55.8%) 2.2 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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PSD ran alone in the Azores and Madeira. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The right-wing coalition Portugal Ahead (PàF), composed of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the People's Party (CDS–PP), won a plurality of the vote with 38.6 percent, securing almost 47 percent of the seats in the Assembly. Compared with 2011, this was a loss of 12 points in support (although the PSD and the CDS–PP did not contest the 2011 election in coalition). On the electoral map, the coalition won every district in the North and in the Centre except Castelo Branco. They also won in the big districts of Lisbon and Porto. The map showed a clear north–south divide, with the conservative coalition winning almost everything in the North and Centre and the Socialist Party (PS) winning in the South.
The PS was the second most voted political force, winning 32.3 percent of the vote and 37 percent of the seats in the Parliament. The PS received a higher share of the vote than in 2011, but did not increase its share by as much of a margin as had been predicted by the opinion polls prior to September 2015, with António Costa, former mayor of Lisbon, even failing to win the city of Lisbon. Although the PS and the other left-wing parties did win a clear overall majority in Parliament, in his concession speech Costa said that he would not support "a negative coalition" with the Left Bloc and Communist Party and that he would rather talk and negotiate with the PSD/CDS–PP coalition.[2] (a position he would later retract.[3])
The Left Bloc (BE), despite predictions by opinion polls, achieved its best result in history,[4] with more than 10 percent of the vote, becoming the third largest parliamentary group. The CDU's (Communists and Greens) share of the vote increased slightly compared to 2011, receiving 8 percent of the vote and one additional MP. The People-Animals-Nature (PAN) also elected one member of parliament becoming the first time since 1999 in which a new party entered the Assembly.[5] Voter turnout reached a new low, with just 55.8 percent of the electorate casting their ballot on election day.[4]
Passos Coelho was asked, by the President of the Republic, to form a minority government that took the oath of office on October 30, 2015. The government fell after the approval of a motion to bring it down on 10 November. On 24 November, António Costa was appointed by the President of the Republic as Prime Minister-designate. Costa was sworn in on 26 November 2015.
Background
After the PSD/CDS–PP government was sworn in, a series of austerity policies, in the wake of the financial bailout agreement, were implemented, creating several backlash and protests.[6] In September 2012, further austerity policies led to one of the biggest demonstrations against a government in Portuguese democracy, with more than 1 million people going out to the streets across the country.[7] Because of this massive protest, the coalition government was deeply shaken and was forced to drop several policies.[8]
By the summer of 2013, another crisis in the coalition government emerged. The Finance Minister Vítor Gaspar resigned in late June 2013,[9] and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho choose treasury Secretary, Maria Luís Albuquerque, to be the next Finance minister.[10] However, CDS – People's Party (CDS-PP) leader, Paulo Portas, criticized the choice of the new minister and announced his "irrevocable" resignation from the government.[11] Prime Minister Passos Coelho didn't accept Portas' resignation and refused also to leave office, opting, instead, to negotiate a new government organization with Portas.[12] A deal was reached a few days later, in which Portas would become deputy prime minister and with more powers on economic affairs.[13] But, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva refused to accept the deal and forced negotiations between PSD and PS, in which a deal between parties to maintain economic stability and a snap election in 2014 were on the table.[14] Despite presidential pressure, talks between PSD and PS fell apart and Cavaco Silva was forced to accept the PSD/CDS–PP original deal.[15]
The Social Democrats (PSD) suffered a considerable setback in the 2013 local elections by gathering just 31 percent of the votes and 106 mayors, a drop of 33 cities, while the Socialists (PS) obtained their best result till that date, 150 mayors, a gain of 18, with almost 37 percent of the votes.[16] In May 2014, Portugal was successful in exiting the economic bailout that was negotiated in 2011,[17] with the country having emerged from recession by mid-2013.[18] The collapse and subsequent resolution of BES bank during the summer of 2014 also had an impact on the government.[19][20] Furthermore, in the autumn of 2014, suspicions of tax evasion fell upon Prime Minister Passos Coelho during his time working in the private sector.[21] These suspicions would be dismissed a few years later.[22]
Leadership changes and challenges
Socialist Party
After José Sócrates resignation from the party's leadership, due to the poor result of the Socialists in the 2011 election,[23] a snap leadership election was called to elect a new leader for 22 and 23 July 2011.[24] There were two candidates on the ballot: António José Seguro and Francisco Assis.[25] Seguro was elected by a landslide and the results were the following:
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| António José Seguro | 23,903 | 67.3 | |
| Francisco Assis | 11,257 | 31.7 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 367 | 1.0 | |
| Turnout | 35,527 | ||
| Source: Official results | |||
Two years later, in April 2013, Seguro was challenged by party member Aires Pedro to the leadership. There were 43,034 party members registered to cast a ballot, and Seguro was easily re-elected with nearly 97% of the votes, against the just 3% for Pedro.[26]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| António José Seguro | 24,843 | 93.0 | |
| Aires Pedro | 892 | 3.3 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 990 | 3.7 | |
| Turnout | 26,725 | 62.10 | |
| Source: Diretas 2013[27] | |||
Seguro's leadership was constantly marred by internal infighting, coming mainly from then Mayor of Lisbon António Costa, which despite forging a deal with Seguro to not challenge him for the leadership in early 2013,[28] Costa never really ended speculations about it.[29] Following the party's disappointing result in the 2014 European Parliament elections, in which the PS got just 31 percent of the votes against the 28 percent of the PSD/CDS coalition, António Costa called the results "tiny" (poucochinho), and challenged António José Seguro for the leadership.[30] Seguro rejected a leadership ballot, but called an open primary, for 28 September 2014, on who should be the party's candidate for prime minister in the 2015 election.[31] It was the first open primary in the history of the party, and of Portugal. In end, only two candidates ran: António José Seguro, General Secretary of the party at the time of the primary, and António Costa, mayor of Lisbon. Nearly 250,000 people registered to cast a ballot in the primary.[32] António Costa won the primary by a landslide with 67.9 percent of the vote against the 31.7 percent of Antonio José Seguro, resulting in Seguro conceding defeat and resigning as General Secretary of the party. Thereafter, Costa was elected as the new Socialist General Secretary on 22 November 2014.[33] The results were the following:
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| António Costa | 120,188 | 67.8 | |
| António José Seguro | 55,928 | 31.5 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 1,234 | 0.7 | |
| Turnout | 177,350 | 70.71 | |
| Source: Official Results | |||
The start of António Costa's term as PS leader was, however, marred by the arrest of former Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates on 21 November 2014, due to an inquiry which accused the former prime minister of crimes of tax fraud, money laundering and corruption.[34]
Left Bloc
One year after the disappointing results of the party in the 2011 elections, the then Left Bloc leader, Francisco Louçã, decided to leave the leadership[35] and a party convention was held to elect a new leader. In November 2012, the party elected a dual leadership headed by João Semedo and Catarina Martins.[36]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| João Semedo Catarina Martins |
359 | 76.5 | |
| João Madeira | 110 | 23.5 | |
| Turnout | 469 | ||
| Source: Results | |||
However, bad polling and election results, specially the 2014 European elections results, put pressure in the party's leadership,[37] and a new party convention, in 2014, showed a very divided party as the dual leadership of Semedo and Martins was reelected by a very slim margin. The results were the following:
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| João Semedo Catarina Martins |
266 | 50.8 | |
| Pedro Filipe Soares | 258 | 49.2 | |
| Turnout | 524 | ||
| Source: Results | |||
Just 7 days after the very close result in the party's convention, on 30 November 2014, João Semedo resigned as party coordinator and Catarina Martins became to sole party coordinator.[38]
Date
According to the Portuguese Constitution, an election must be called between 14 September and 14 October of the year that the legislature ends. The election is called by the President of Portugal but is not called at the request of the prime minister; however, the president must listen all the parties represented in Parliament and the election day must be announced at least 60 days before the election.[39] If an election is called in the middle of the legislature (Dissolution of Parliament) it must be held at least in 55 days. Election day is the same in all multi-seats constituencies, and should fall on a Sunday or national holiday. The next legislative election must, therefore, took place no later than 11 October 2015.[40] After meeting with all of the parties represented in parliament on 21 July 2015, the President Aníbal Cavaco Silva called the election for 4 October.[1]
Electoral system
The Assembly of the Republic has 230 members elected to four-year terms. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as even if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 116 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.[41]
The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[42] The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.[43]
For these elections, and compared with the 2011 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[44]
| District | Number of MPs | Map |
|---|---|---|
| Lisbon | 47 | 
19
6
39
5
3
16
9
4
9
4
10
9
47
2
3
18
3
9
6
5
2
2
|
| Porto | 39 | |
| Braga | 19 | |
| Setúbal(+1) | 18 | |
| Aveiro | 16 | |
| Leiria | 10 | |
| Coimbra, Faro, Viseu and Santarém(–1) | 9 | |
| Madeira and Viana do Castelo | 6 | |
| Azores and Vila Real | 5 | |
| Castelo Branco and Guarda | 4 | |
| Beja, Bragança, Évora | 3 | |
| Portalegre, Europe and Outside Europe | 2 |
Parties
Parliamentary factions
The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 12th legislature (2011–2015):
| Name | Ideology | Political position | Leader | 2011 result | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | Seats | ||||||
| PPD/PSD | Social Democratic Party Partido Social Democrata |
Conservatism Classical liberalism |
Centre-right | Pedro Passos Coelho | 38.7% | 108 / 230 | |
| PS | Socialist Party Partido Socialista |
Social democracy Progressivism |
Centre-left | António Costa | 28.1% | 74 / 230 | |
| CDS–PP | CDS – People's Party Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular |
Christian democracy Conservatism |
Centre-right to right-wing |
Paulo Portas | 11.7% | 24 / 230 | |
| PCP | Portuguese Communist Party Partido Comunista Português |
Communism Marxism–Leninism |
Far-left | Jerónimo de Sousa | 7.9% [e] |
14 / 230 | |
| PEV | Ecologist Party "The Greens" Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" |
Eco-socialism Green politics |
Left-wing | Heloísa Apolónia | 2 / 230 | ||
| BE | Left Bloc Bloco de Esquerda |
Democratic socialism Anti-capitalism |
Left-wing | Catarina Martins | 5.2% | 8 / 230 | |
Contesting parties
For the election, PSD and CDS–PP ran in a joint coalition, announced in April 2015,[45] while another coalition, between the Portuguese Labour Party (PTP) and the Socialist Alternative Movement (MAS), was approved in July 2015.[46] The parties and coalitions that contested seats to the Portuguese parliament, and their leaders, were:
Campaign period
Issues
The campaign was dominated by the country's economic situation, after fours years of strong austerity measures, being seen as a referendum to the government's policies and the recent economic recovery, with the country emerging from the bailout in May 2014.[48] The Socialist Party's campaign was also marked by a controversy regarding its election posters, as the party used people's faces on their campaign posters without their consent or knowledge, and made up stories that did not match the reality of the people portrayed.[49]
Party slogans
| Party or alliance | Original slogan | English translation | Refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PàF | « Agora Portugal pode mais » | "Now Portugal can do more" | [50] | |
| PS | « É tempo de confiança » | "It's time for trust" | [51] | |
| CDU | « Soluções para um Portugal com futuro » | "Solutions for a Portugal with a future" | [52] | |
| BE | « Faz a diferença. Gente de verdade » | "Make a difference. Real people" | [53] | |
| PAN | « A causa de todos » | "The cause of all" | [54] | |
Candidates' debates
After changes in the electoral law that obligated that all of the parties contesting an election should be represented in debates, the 3 main TV networks RTP, SIC and TVI proposed 3 debates between the two main candidates António Costa and Pedro Passos Coelho and also a series of head-to-head debates between various party leaders and one debate with all party leaders.[55] After meetings with the various parties, it was decided to hold two face-to-face debates between António Costa and Pedro Passos Coelho in which one would be broadcast on television and the other on radio. There was also going to be a debate between all the parties represented in Parliament but it was cancelled by the refusal of the PSD/CDS–PP coalition to have only the leader of the PSD on the debate and not also the leader of CDS–PP, Paulo Portas.[56][57]
Completed televised debates:
| Portuguese legislative election debates, 2015 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N°. | Date | Broadcaster | Moderator(s) | Invitees | Notes | ||||||||||
| Name Invited Participant. N Non-invitee. |  |
 |
 |
 | |||||||||||
| 1 | 1 September | RTP Informação | Vítor Gonçalves | N | N | Jerónimo | Martins | ||||||||
| 2 | 8 September | SIC Notícias | Ana Lourenço | Portas | N | N | Martins | ||||||||
| 3 | 9 September | RTP1 SIC TVI |
Judite de Sousa Clara de Sousa João Adelino Faria |
P. Coelho | Costa | N | N | Broadcast simultaneously on the 3 major TV networks. | |||||||
| 4 | 11 September | RTP Informação | Vítor Gonçalves | P. Coelho | N | N | Martins | ||||||||
| 5 | 14 September | TVI24 | Pedro Pinto | N | Costa | N | Martins | ||||||||
| 6 | 16 September | SIC Notícias | Ana Lourenço | N | Costa | Jerónimo | N | ||||||||
| 7 | 17 September | Antena 1 RR TSF |
Graça Franco Maria Flor Pedroso Paulo Baldaia |
P. Coelho | Costa | N | N | Broadcast simultaneously on 3 national radio stations. | |||||||
| 8 | 18 September | TVI24 | José Alberto Carvalho | Portas | N | Apolónia | N | ||||||||
| Candidate viewed as "most convincing" in each debate | |||||||||||||||
| Debate | Poll source | |
|
|
|
Notes | |||||||||
| 3 | 9 September | RTP1/SIC/TVI | Aximage | 35.7 | 48.0 | 16.3% said it was a tie. | |||||||||
| Eurosondagem | 31.8 | 40.0 | 28.2% said neither won or it was a tie. | ||||||||||||
| 7 | 17 September | Antena 1/RR/TSF | Marktest | 42.5 | 29.5 | 14.2% said neither won and 13.8% were undecided. | |||||||||
Opinion polling
View source data.
Voter turnout
Results
The outcome showed a relative victory for the right-wing coalition, but also a combined one for the left-wing parties (including the Socialist Party), resulting in a hung parliament (a single right-wing winner and a left-wing majority parliament).[60][61]
National summary
 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party or alliance | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | |||
| Portugal Ahead | Portugal Ahead[f] | 1,993,504 | 36.86 | –10.98 | 102 | –22 | ||
| Social Democratic Party[g] | 80,841 | 1.49 | –0.50 | 5 | –2 | |||
| CDS – People's Party[h] | 7,496 | 0.14 | –0.20 | 0 | –1 | |||
| Alliance Azores[i] | 3,624 | 0.07 | –0.13 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 2,085,465 | 38.56 | –11.81 | 107 | –25 | |||
| Socialist Party | 1,747,730 | 32.32 | +4.27 | 86 | +12 | |||
| Left Bloc | 550,945 | 10.19 | +4.98 | 19 | +11 | |||
| Unitary Democratic Coalition | 445,901 | 8.25 | +0.35 | 17 | +1 | |||
| People Animals Nature | 75,170 | 1.39 | +0.35 | 1 | +1 | |||
| Democratic Republican Party | 61,920 | 1.14 | New | 0 | New | |||
| Portuguese Workers' Communist Party | 60,045 | 1.11 | –0.01 | 0 | 0 | |||
| LIVRE/Time to move forward | 39,330 | 0.73 | New | 0 | New | |||
| National Renovator Party | 27,286 | 0.50 | +0.19 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Earth Party | 22,627 | 0.42 | +0.01 | 0 | 0 | |||
| We, the Citizens! | 21,382 | 0.40 | New | 0 | New | |||
| ACT! (Labour/Socialist Alternative) | 20,793 | 0.38 | — | 0 | — | |||
| People's Monarchist Party | 14,916 | 0.28 | +0.02 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Together for the People | 14,275 | 0.26 | New | 0 | New | |||
| United Party of Retirees and Pensioners | 13,899 | 0.26 | New | 0 | New | |||
| Citizenship and Christian Democracy | 2,685 | 0.05 | –0.10 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Portuguese Labour Party[j] | 1,744 | 0.03 | — | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 5,206,113 | 100.00 | – | 230 | 0 | |||
| Valid votes | 5,206,113 | 96.27 | +0.35 | |||||
| Invalid votes | 89,024 | 1.65 | +0.23 | |||||
| Blank votes | 112,955 | 2.09 | –0.57 | |||||
| Total votes | 5,408,092 | 100.00 | – | |||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 9,684,922 | 55.84 | –2.19 | |||||
| Source: Diário da República | ||||||||
Distribution by constituency
| Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | Total S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PàF | PS | BE | CDU | PSD | PAN | ||||||||
| Azores | 40.3 | 3 | 7.8 | - | 2.5 | - | 36.1 | 2 | 0.9 | - | 5 | ||
| Aveiro | 48.1 | 10 | 27.9 | 5 | 9.6 | 1 | 4.4 | - | 1.0 | - | 16 | ||
| Beja | 20.1 | 1 | 37.3 | 1 | 8.2 | - | 25.0 | 1 | 0.8 | - | 3 | ||
| Braga | 45.6 | 10 | 30.9 | 7 | 8.8 | 1 | 5.2 | 1 | 0.8 | - | 19 | ||
| Bragança | 49.4 | 2 | 34.1 | 1 | 5.5 | - | 3.1 | - | 0.6 | - | 3 | ||
| Castelo Branco | 35.3 | 2 | 38.9 | 2 | 10.0 | - | 6.0 | - | 0.8 | - | 4 | ||
| Coimbra | 37.2 | 4 | 35.3 | 4 | 9.9 | 1 | 7.0 | - | 1.0 | - | 9 | ||
| Évora | 23.9 | 1 | 37.5 | 1 | 8.6 | - | 21.9 | 1 | 0.9 | - | 3 | ||
| Faro | 31.5 | 3 | 32.8 | 4 | 14.1 | 1 | 8.7 | 1 | 2.0 | - | 9 | ||
| Guarda | 45.6 | 2 | 33.8 | 2 | 7.4 | - | 4.0 | - | 0.9 | - | 4 | ||
| Leiria | 48.4 | 6 | 24.8 | 3 | 9.7 | 1 | 5.1 | - | 1.2 | - | 10 | ||
| Lisbon | 34.7 | 18 | 33.5 | 18 | 10.9 | 5 | 9.8 | 5 | 2.0 | 1 | 47 | ||
| Madeira | 20.9 | 2 | 10.7 | 1 | 3.6 | - | 37.8 | 3 | 1.8 | - | 6 | ||
| Portalegre | 27.6 | 1 | 42.4 | 1 | 9.2 | - | 12.2 | - | 0.8 | - | 2 | ||
| Porto | 39.6 | 17 | 32.7 | 14 | 11.1 | 5 | 6.8 | 3 | 1.6 | - | 39 | ||
| Santarém | 35.8 | 4 | 32.9 | 3 | 10.8 | 1 | 9.6 | 1 | 1.2 | - | 9 | ||
| Setúbal | 22.6 | 5 | 34.3 | 7 | 13.1 | 2 | 18.8 | 4 | 1.9 | - | 18 | ||
| Viana do Castelo | 45.5 | 4 | 29.8 | 2 | 8.0 | - | 5.2 | - | 0.9 | - | 6 | ||
| Vila Real | 51.0 | 3 | 33.1 | 2 | 5.2 | - | 3.0 | - | 0.6 | - | 5 | ||
| Viseu | 51.1 | 6 | 29.7 | 3 | 6.7 | - | 3.5 | - | 0.7 | - | 9 | ||
| Europe | 39.1 | 1 | 29.9 | 1 | 5.8 | - | 5.9 | - | 0.9 | - | 2 | ||
| Outside Europe | 48.5 | 2 | 10.8 | - | 1.6 | - | 1.5 | - | 1.8 | - | 2 | ||
| Total | 36.9 | 102 | 32.3 | 86 | 10.2 | 19 | 8.3 | 17 | 1.5 | 5 | 1.4 | 1 | 230 |
| Source: Legislativas 2015 | |||||||||||||
Maps
Winner and seats by constituency.
Most voted political force by municipality.
Percentage of votes for the left-wing parties represented in the Parliament, by district or autonomous region.
_alternativo.png)
Aftermath
Government formation
Despite Costa's statements during election night, the Socialists, the Left Bloc, the Communists and the Greens started negotiations to form a left-wing majority coalition government.[62][63] After the election, the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party, António Costa, rejected the proposal for a post-election coalition government with the right-wing alliance PàF,[64] adding that the Socialist Party would reject in Parliament any government that would be led by Pedro Passos Coelho or supported by the right-wing coalition Portugal Ahead.[65] António Costa also guaranteed to President Aníbal Cavaco Silva that the Socialist Party had the conditions to form a government, supported in the parliament by the Left Bloc and the Communist Party.[66] After being consulted by the President, the Socialist Party, the Left Bloc, the Communist Party and the Greens expressed their intention to support a government of the Socialist Party, led by António Costa.[67]
Among the most likely scenarios that were considered for a new government were:[68][69]
- A right-wing (PàF) minority government without the support of the Socialists (without majority support from the new parliament; rejected by Costa);
- A right-wing (PàF) minority government with the parliamentary support of the Socialists (rejected by Costa);
- A grand coalition government including the right-wing coalition (PàF) and the Socialists (rejected by Costa);
- A minority government of the Socialist Party with the parliamentary support of the Left Bloc and the Communists (most likely);
- A left-wing coalition government including the Socialists, the Left Bloc and the Communists;
- A caretaker government, until new elections are held, if the parties fail to reach an agreement.
On 22 October, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva controversially appointed Pedro Passos Coelho to form a new government,[70] which after taking the oath of office had 10 days to submit its programme in Parliament. But the PS, BE and CDU had already stated that they would call a motion of rejection to bring down the government.[71]
On 23 October, the new Assembly of the Republic was opened, with Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, a Socialist, being elected as President of the Assembly with the support of the Socialists, the Communists, the Left Bloc and the Greens. He received 120 votes against 108 votes for the government's candidate.[72]
The members of the second Passos Coelho government took office on 30 October,[73][74] with the government's programme scheduled to be voted by Parliament on 10 November.[75]
Fall of the government and appointment of a new one
Just before the parliamentary debate and vote on the government's programme, the Socialist Party reached an agreement with the three other left-wing parties: the Left Bloc, the Communists and the Greens. Those agreements were eventually approved by the national bodies of the Socialist Party on 8 November.[3][76] On 10 November, the Portugal Ahead government programme was rejected by Parliament, after a motion of rejection was approved by 123 votes against and 107 in favor, bringing down the government itself:[77]
Fourteen days later, on 24 November, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva appointed António Costa, Socialist Party leader, as Prime Minister[79] and a new government was sworn in, on 26 November, as a Socialist Party minority government with the confidence and supply of the Left Bloc, the Communist Party and the Ecologist Party "The Greens".[80] On 2 and 3 December 2015, Costa's government programme was debated in the Assembly of the Republic, with PSD/CDS–PP presenting a motion of rejection that was defeated,[81] and Costa's minority government entered into full exercise of its functions:[82]
See also
Notes
- As leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). The leader of the People's Party (CDS–PP) is the deputy prime minister Paulo Portas.
- In the 2011 election, Pedro Passos Coelho was elected in the district of Vila Real.
- Sum of votes and seats of the PSD and the CDS–PP in the 2011 election. PSD: 38.7%, 108 seats; CDS–PP: 11.7%, 24 seats.
- Following the election, Pedro Passos Coelho was first designated as Prime Minister by the President of the Republic with a PSD/CDS-PP minority government. He took the oath of office for his second term on October 30, 2015. On 10 November 2015, Coelho's government was defeated in a motion of no confidence vote, 123 against 107, prompting the fall of his government. The President of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, then invited PS leader António Costa to form a minority government with the support of BE and CDU. Costa's minority government was sworn in on 26 November 2015.
- The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (PEV) contested the 2011 election in a coalition called Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) and won a combined 7.9% of the vote and elected 16 MPs to parliament.
- PSD/CDS–PP electoral lists only in continental Portugal and overseas.
- Electoral list only in Madeira and Azores.
- Electoral list only in Madeira.
- CDS–PP/PPM electoral list only in Azores.
- Electoral list only in Madeira.