This time, Mr. Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho* from the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra helps us understand the background of the early legislative election that was held in Portugal, on 30 January 2022. Our guest expert gave us a comprehensive analysis about the Portuguese party system and the current hot topics in his country.
The snap election was called for due to the rejection of the 2022 state budget as the left-wing parties joined the right-wing ones in voting against the proposal. The center-left Socialist Party of Prime Minister António Costa secured an unexpected majority in the Assembly of the Republic obtaining around 42% of the vote, while its main opponent, the liberal-conservative Social Democratic Party slightly underperformed the surveys and gathered around 29%. As a new phenomenon, the right-wing populist CHEGA saw an increase in popularity and finished in third place.
With the help of guest experts and politicians, in the podcast series of MCC’s Centre for Political Science we endeavor to analyze which actors are the real winners of the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place this year in different European countries and what exactly can be considered a real victory after the ballot counts.
