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The party has secured a strong new mandate after more participation than expected, after voting for people with COVID.
Portugal’s center-left Socialists have won a full parliamentary majority in Sunday’s election, with a strong new term for Prime Minister Antonio Costa as the country prepares to raise billions of dollars in EU aid as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The result, despite a larger-than-expected turnout despite the coronavirus pandemic, came as a surprise after the Socialists lost much of their leadership in recent polls.
Among the rising number of coronavirus cases attributed to the Omicron variant, and a vote to allow about a million people with COVID-19 to leave their homes, the Socialists took 117 seats in the 230-seat parliament, up. From 108 onwards at the outgoing assembly.
“Absolute majority does not mean absolute power. It does not mean governing alone. It is a bigger responsibility and it means governing with all Portuguese and for all, ”Costa said in a victory speech.
Before the final results came, Costa said the party won 117 or 118 seats in the 230-seat parliament, more than 108 in the 2019 election, and his supporters erupted in loud celebrations, chanting and waving the old revolutionary anthem “Grandola”. flags.
It was a vote called in November After Costa’s hard-line communist left and former allies in the Left Bloc joined forces with the right to defeat the budget of his minority government.
The two far-left parties paid the price, losing more than half of their seats, according to opinion polls.
The center-right Social Democrats were second away with 71 seats far right Enough appeared as the third parliamentary force, taking 12 seats in parliament in the previous legislature.
There are still four seats to be allocated in the coming days with the results of the votes cast abroad, but in 2019 the Socialists won two of them.
Vote for stability
Costa, who first came to power in 2015, has led a period of sustained economic growth and helped reduce the budget deficit and achieved a small surplus in 2019 before the pandemic.
Catia Reis, a 39-year-old human resources chief, said she had voted in favor of the Socialists because “stability is needed”.
“This is not the time for political change,” he told AFP after voting at a polling station in Lisbon.
This will be the first time that the Socialists have an absolute majority and it is a big bet for the administration that has reached Costa.
Portugal, a country with a population of 10.3 million and the poorest in Western Europe, is ready to start expanding the EU’s recovery funds by 2026 billion ($ 18.7 billion) by 2026. Some will go to public projects, such as major infrastructure projects. .
It is estimated that more than one-tenth of the population is isolated due to COVID-19, the government allowed people with the virus to leave isolation and vote, and election officials wore protective clothing to pick them up in the evening.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. [Armando Franca/AP Photo]Turnout was on track to break the 2019 participation record of 49 percent.
As in many European countries, COVID-19 infection has increased, although vaccines have kept deaths and hospitalizations lower than in previous waves.
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