Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s 11-day-old government collapsed Tuesday after the opposition Socialist leader teamed up with the Communists (PCP), Greens and Left Bloc (BE) to vote down the government program.
The conservative prime minister won the October 4 elections, but fell eight seats short of a parliamentary majority. Socialist António Costa came second but has managed to pull together a left-wing majority which is likely to form a new government in coming days.
Passos Coelho’s coalition, which won the admiration of many of Portugal’s eurozone partners including Germany by pushing through austerity measures following a €78 billion international bailout in 2011, goes down as the shortest-lived government since the country returned to democracy in 1974.
The outgoing premier said the left-wing coalition is a “negative majority only made to bring down the government. What drives the Socialist Party today is nothing but an appetite for power.”
Portugal’s head of state, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, is now expected to ask Costa to form a government in the coming days.
The Socialist leader has promised to put an end to what he calls “an obsession with austerity.” His new-found ally Jerónimo de Sousa of the Communist Party said it was “the end of the line for a government that made life a living hell for many Portuguese.”
Greece’s governing Syriza, which is close to Portugal’s Left Bloc, congratulated the leftist alliance and said they were happy to see an anti-austerity alliance close to power in another European capital, according to the Portuguese media.
“I hope that [what comes next] is not chaos and that whoever comes next does not cause it,” said Maria Luís Albuquerque, the finance minister in the outgoing government.
Deputy Prime Minister Paulo Portas, from the center-right Christian Social Democrats, warned the Socialist leader “not to come afterwards calling for help.”
Financial markets have taken dim view of the likelihood of a government including the Communists and Left Bloc, who have much more radical views on economics and foreign policy than the pro-euro Socialists.
This article was updated to include comments from the parliamentary debate.
