Portugal’s minority government, the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Luís Montenegro, is able to proceed with its new administration programme after a no-confidence motion by the Communist Party was completely rejected this week.
In its programme, the AD government has pledged to continue cutting taxes for the middle class and companies, while maintaining budget surpluses, and maintaining a permanent dialogue with the two main opposition parties on major issues such as immigration.
The Communists this week accused the government of not helping “the interests of the workers.” They also opposed the government’s plan to raise defence spending to 2% of GDP.
For now, Prime Minister Montenegro’s fragile government has the backing of both the centre-leftSocialists and the far-right Chega party.
The Democratic Alliance won more seats in last month’s snap election than in the previous election last year, but it fell short again of a working majority, mainly because of the increasing popularity of the far right.
The AD is in power for the time being. No new election can be called before the middle of next year. Critically, perhaps, Chega’s leader, André Ventura, has said that “it is not time to obstruct” the government, even though he does not think it is a good one.
Despite Chega’s anti-establishment and anti-immigration attitudes, Prime Minister Montenegro said this week that his government is in for the full four-year term.
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