Portugal's ruling center-right Democratic Union won Sunday's parliamentary elections but failed to secure a majority in the legislature, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The Democratic Union is expected to form a minority government amid a sharp increase in support for the far-right populist party "Enough!".
The Democratic Union is made up of three parties - the Social Democratic Party of Luis Montenegro, the Social Democratic Center – People's Party and the People's Monarchist Party.
With 99% of the electoral protocols processed, the Democratic Union received 32.1% of the vote, which gives it 86 deputies in the 230-seat parliament, the Guardian newspaper reported. This is well below the 116 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.
The Socialist Party received 23.4% of the vote, and support for the far-right populist party "Enough!" amounted to 22.6%. Thus, both parties will have 58 deputies in the new parliament.
Montenegro said, quoted by Reuters, that although it does not have a majority in parliament, the Democratic Union led by him has received a clear governing mandate from the Portuguese. Earlier in the day, Montenegro told supporters that the opposition Socialist Party was clearly not willing to negotiate any kind of broad majority agreement. The leader of the Democratic Union also assured that he would stick to his promise not to make any agreements with the far-right formation "Enough!".
After the announcement of the vote results, Socialist Party leader Pedro Nuno Santos said he was resigning from his post, Reuters added. The party will soon hold an internal vote to choose a new leader. Santos indicated that he would not participate in the race.
The Democratic Union remained in power for less than a year and was removed in March in a vote of confidence, AP recalls. In last year's election, the Democratic Union won 80 seats and ruled as a minority government.
Portugal's third general election in three years has dashed hopes that the vote could end the worst political instability in decades, the AP said.
In addition, the growing support for "Enough!" has added further uncertainty to Portugal's political climate. "Enough!" first appeared in a general election six years ago, when it won just one seat. Over time, the populist party has capitalized on the discontent of more moderate traditional parties. "Enough!"'s last election campaign ran under the slogan "Let's save Portugal".
"Enough!" describes itself as a nationalist party and relies heavily on the popularity of its leader. André Ventura.
"This is my moment", Ventura said after the results of the vote were announced. "This is a big victory for "Enough!"".
Portugal is facing a sharp increase in immigration. Official government statistics show that in 2018 there were fewer than half a million legal immigrants in the country, compared to more than 1.5 million at the beginning of this year. Many of these migrants are Brazilians and Asians and work in sectors such as tourism and agriculture. However, Portugal also has thousands of undocumented migrants. Two weeks before the election, the Santos government announced that it would expel about 18,000 foreigners who were staying in Portugal illegally. Socialist leader Santos described the move as "Trumpification" of Portuguese politics, referring to the migration policy of US President Donald Trump.
The housing crisis was also among the hot topics in the election debates. House prices and rents have been rising for 10 years. Last year, house prices jumped by another 9%, according to data from the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics. Rents in the capital Lisbon and its surroundings, where about 1.5 million people live out of a population of nearly 10.6 million, last year saw a 7% increase, the sharpest increase in the last 30 years.
The problem is also complicated by the fact that Portugal is one of the poorest countries in Western Europe. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, the average gross monthly salary last year was around 1,200 euros. The minimum gross salary set by the government for this year is 870 euros.