Portuguese MPs force minority

government to quit over austerity

Alliance of socialists and communists brings down centre-right coalition
weeks after general election

Outgoing Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho leaves at the end of the debate. Photograph:
Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images

Angelique Chrisafis-Tuesday 10 November 2015

A surprise alliance of leftwing parties with a mission to turn the page on
austerity has ousted Portugals centre-right government barely 11 days
after it took power.
The moderate centre-left Socialist party forged an unprecedented alliance
with the smaller Communist party and the radical Left Bloc, linked to
Greeces anti-austerity Syriza party, and used a parliamentary vote on
policy to force the government to resign on Tuesday.

The Socialist leader, Antnio Costa, 54, is now expected to become prime
minister in the coming weeks with a broad, leftwing coalition government,
which hopes to ease austerity while still adhering to European Union rules.
The taboo has ended; the wall has been broken, he said after the vote.
This is a new political framework; the old majority cannot pretend to be
what it stopped being.
The toppled government of the prime minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, came
first in last months election but lost its absolute majority as voters
questioned the harsh and unpopular austerity he had imposed in return for
a 78bn international bailout in 2011, during his first term.
Passos Coelho, who cut salaries and pensions, slashed public services and
introduced the largest tax rises in living memory, argued he was the only
one who could be trusted to lead Portugal through its economic recovery.
He planned to continue leading the country with a minority government,
but the unlikely alliance of opposition parties on the left joined together to
topple the government, making it the shortest administration since Portugal
became a democracy in 1974 after 48 years of dictatorship.
The showdown came as Portugal despite the beginnings of an economic
recovery after exiting the bailout scheme remains heavily in debt and
vulnerable. Unemployment is still painfully high at 12%, rising to 30%
among young people. Living standards have fallen sharply in what is still
western Europes poorest nation. One in five people continues to live below
the poverty line with an income of less than 5,000 (3,684) per year.
Health and education services have been affected by cuts.

A protest outside the Portuguese parliament building in Lisbon before the

vote. Photograph: Joao Profirio/EPA
The new alliance, which would have been unthinkable only a few weeks ago
because of party differences, is made up of several strands of the left. At
the helm is Costa, a popular former mayor of Lisbon and head of the
Socialists, a moderate mainstream party with a long history in government.
Although Costa has pledged to ease back on austerity and boost
households disposable income, he is nonetheless a moderate who is keen
to abide by Europes budget deficit rules.
He had long been at pains to reassure investors and Portugals eurozone
partners that a Socialist-led government would not result in a Greece-style
clash with creditors and that he would respect Portugals international
commitments.
He told reporters as he left parliament after the vote: Were in a position to
assure the scrupulous fulfilment of our international obligations, but while
allowing family income to recover, and the economy and employment to
grow. He said the deal he made with the two smaller, more radical-left
parties who have never been in government was serious. As centre-right
politicians warned of a fragile alliance, Costa told parliament he could
guarantee a stable government.
Unlike in Greece, where the far-left Syriza party leads the government,
Portugals Communists and the Syriza-allied Left Bloc would play a

supporting role.
The Left Bloc, led by Catarina Martins, 42, a charismatic actor-turnedactivist, was established in 1999 and made a surprise breakthrough in the
elections, winning just over 10% of votes and making it the countrys thirdbiggest political grouping. The party has recommended mass disobedience
against austerity and, like the Communists, wants Portugal out of Nato.
Portugals long-established Communist party has a traditional MarxistLeninist stance and took its usual 8% of the vote in the recent elections. It
has campaigned to nationalise the countrys banks and energy companies.
It is led by Jernimo de Sousa, a 68-year-old political veteran who started
work in a factory aged 14. De Sousa told parliament: Millions of Portuguese
people will breathe a sigh of relief at the end of a [centre-right] government
which for four years has made their lives hell.
To achieve their unprecedented alliance with the Socialists and gain a door
to power, the smaller parties will probably surrender their more hardline
positions. A policy agreement for the next four years negotiated between
the three parties is not yet public, but the Socialists insist on abiding by
eurozone financial rules. The new coalitions plans are believed to include
reversing pay cuts for government workers and restoring four public
holidays that were scrapped to boost productivity.
The politicians argued that various left-of-centre parties had together
collected 62% of the vote in last months election.
In 2011, Portugal became the third eurozone country after Ireland and
Greece to be bailed out. Four years later, it has left the bailout scheme but
only after implementing stringent austerity measures in return for funding.
There have been steep tax increases, deep cuts in welfare rights, pay and
pensions, as well as changes to labour entitlements. After three years of
recession, the economy has grown this year. But unemployment, job
precarity and poverty still hit hard.
Emigration was also a major campaign issue. A total of 485,000 people left
Portugal between 2011 and 2014, the highest emigration rate in more than

50 years in a country whose total population stands at around 10 million.

The recent exodus surpassed the wave of Portuguese emigration in the
1960s that saw an unskilled labour force leave. This time, qualified youth,
including scientists, doctors and nurses, have left.
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