Posted on 02/20/2005 4:26:27 PM PST by HAL9000
LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's opposition Socialists scored their biggest-ever electoral victory on Sunday as voters ousted centre-right Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes after only seven months in power, exit polls showed.Western Europe's poorest nation swung to the left in giving Socialist leader Jose Socrates an absolute majority in parliament needed to implement a platform the party said would boost the lagging economy.
Analysts said the resounding win amid a large turnout was a welcome sign of stability for the nation of 10 million people.
Socrates's government will be Portugal's fourth in three years.
President Jorge Sampaio dissolved parliament early in December, citing lack of confidence in the centre-right coalition government after a bout of instability.
Sunday's victory was the Socialists' biggest since a revolution overthrew a rightist dictatorship in 1974.
They polled 46.9 percent to 50.7 percent of the vote to 23.3 to 27.8 percent for Santana Lopes's centre-right Social Democrats, according to a poll for SIC television.
The SIC results pointed to the Socialists winning 123 to 130 seats in the 230-seat parliament. Polls by TVI television and state television RTP gave Socrates a similar level of victory.
The hardline Communists led by new party chief Jeronimo de Sousa rebounded from years of decline to emerge as the number three party in parliament.
They were trailed by the rightist Popular Party, the Social Democrats' coalition partner, and the small Left Bloc.
WIN IS BIGGEST EVER
Socrates's new government will face the challenge of boosting an economy slowing down even as it recovers from recession and of closing a stubborn budget deficit that breached euro currency zone limits in 2001.
"From the point of view of the markets the fact that they have an absolute majority is positive because of the political stability it brings," said Manuel Vasconcelos Guimaraes, president of the Portuguese Association of Investment Funds, Pensions and Patrimony.
"The result will be good for the markets," said fund manager Pedro Correia da Silva.
"I was scared that the election results would be neither fish nor fowl. But the government that comes out of these elections has, now, all the conditions to do its work, if it has good policies and (chooses) good politicians."
Santana Lopes, the then Lisbon mayor, replaced Jose Manuel Barroso as prime minister in July when the latter left to become president of the European Commission.
Socrates, 47, has vowed to boost economic growth to 3 percent a year through technological investment. The central bank has forecast growth this year at 1.6 percent, below the European Union average for the fifth year in a row.
I guess you could say the Portugese drank the "hemlock."
Well as a matter of fact, the Socialist Party didn't lose by that much in the United States.
Guess the economy going down the drain in Germany and France hasn't registered on these boobs
When was the last time a socialist government revived a lagging economy?
Has it ever happened?
It is a nation of beggars....and chooses to remain so.....
Portugal shamed by child sex
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/999743/posts?page=1
Portugal is a beautiful country and has proudly managed to keep itself separate from Spain through much of its history. But it is pretty poor and backward for a nation that once had considerable sea power and wide ranging colonies.
I once spent a month there with my family. Very pleasant and laid back.
Next stop "dictatorship".
Socrates? *g*
I feel sad for the country of my parents. They worked hard for what they have... live everyone of the (legal) immigrants that came to America. In the case of my pops, with 1 suitcase and $400 debt from the plane ticket.
Portugal and its population are lazy ingrates. They all want employment + benefits, yet no one wants to work.
Portugal, along with the rest of the EU will need a severe wake up call.
I think that they have been drinking the Borba, and frankly could not care less. My guess is that the higher taxes may make the electorate shift right again.
I don't know if you are making an offhand remark, or are referencing some writer that I am unaware of. In any case, I'll add my two cents.
My experience in Portugal was that a significant amount of the economy goes unreported...perhaps even more so than in Italy. If you were in Lisbon, I can understand your cynicism. However, most urban areas are crawling with parasites. Outside of the cities, cerainly in the rural areas and of course the Azores, the people remain industrious.
I plead guilty to having not spent time in the rural areas of Portugal, with the exception of the Azores. (The latter being one of the world's lovely secretes.) Most of my time was spent in urban areas.
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