Portugal's conservatives win election as far-right surges
The centre-right Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance beat the Socialist Party for the first time in eight years, but have little chance of forming a majority, Euronews reports.
Portugal’s political future is hanging in the balance after a general election Sunday, after an unprecedented surge in support for a populist party that finished third left the two moderate mainstream parties without a majority.
The centre-right Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance won 79 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, Portugal’s Parliament, after all votes cast in Portugal were counted.
The centre-left Socialist Party, in power the past eight years, got 77 seats.
The deciding votes will come from voters abroad to distribute the final four parliamentary seats after an election night full of suspense. That count could take more than two weeks.
The hard-right Chega (Enough) party came in third with 48 seats, a milestone result that presented an unprecedented challenge to politics-as-usual, underscoring a drift to the right in the European Union.
Smaller parties took the rest of the vote in an election that saw turnout rise to 66%, the highest level in Portugal for years.
The moderate Social Democrats and Socialists have alternated in power for decades in Portugal, and the surge in support for a radical right party pointed to a significant shift in Portugal’s political landscape and likely heralded a period of political uncertainty.
