LISBON: Portugal’s president was on Wednesday holding talks with political leaders on whether to call fresh elections, after Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s government lost a vote of no confidence.
Montenegro, who came to power last year but without a parliamentary majority, quit on Tuesday following the defeat, which was called over a possible conflict of interest row.
Head of state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will discuss the way ahead in meetings Wednesday with Montenegro’s Social Democratic Party (PSD), the main opposition Socialist Party, the far-right Chega party and others.
Further consultations are expected on Thursday with the Council of State, a consultative body made up of high-ranking politicians, before giving his decision either Thursday evening or Friday.
Rebelo de Sousa last week indicated that he was working on “all scenarios.”
Depending on the discussions with the new parties, he could try to form a new government. Alternatively, he could dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.
New elections are seen as the most likely outcome and if called would be the third such vote since 2022. The president has already said they could be held on May 11 or 18.
The president previously opted for elections after the resignation in November 2023 of the Socialist Antonio Costa, who was implicated in an alleged influence-peddling case.
Costa, who has always denied any irregularities, became president of the European Council in June last year.
The controversy that led to Montenegro’s downfall centered around a services company owned by his wife and children which has contracts with a number of private firms, including one granted state concessions.
The former prime minister has said that the family business would now be owned solely by his children but the opposition insisted he provided further details.
Montenegro has said he would stand for re-election if a ballot was called but some Portuguese voters were not enthralled at the prospect.
“We had elections a year ago and now we have them again? That doesn’t seem very good for the country in my opinion,” one Lisbon resident, Maria Leonor, said.
The financial ratings company DBRS Morningstar said: “This increases political uncertainty in Portugal at a time when external risks have increased significantly and pressures to spend more in defense are building up.
“The prospect that new elections can quickly resolve the political impasse is uncertain. Latest opinion polls suggest a relatively similar distribution of seats if new elections are called.”
An opinion poll published Tuesday in the Diario de Noticias newspaper suggested the Socialists were slightly ahead on voting intentions at 30.8 percent.
The center-right Democratic Alliance grouping headed by Montenegro was on 25.8 percent, followed by Chega at about 17 percent.
Portugal’s president holds talks with parties after government falls
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Portugal’s president holds talks with parties after government falls
- Luis Montenegro, who came to power last year but without a parliamentary majority, quit on Tuesday following the defeat
- Further consultations are expected on Thursday with the Council of State, a consultative body made up of high-ranking politicians
Russia says foreign forces in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate targets’
- Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries
MOSCOW: Russia would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, citing Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The ministry’s comment, one of many it said were in response to questions put to Lavrov, also praised US President Donald Trump’s efforts at working for a resolution of the war and said he understood the fundamental reasons behind the conflict.
“The deployment of military units, facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries in Ukraine is unacceptable to us and will be regarded as foreign intervention posing a direct threat to Russia’s security,” the ministry said on its website.
It said Western countries — which have discussed a possible deployment to Ukraine to help secure any peace deal — had to understand “that all foreign military contingents, including German ones, if deployed in Ukraine, will become legitimate targets for the Russian Armed Forces.”
The United States has spearheaded efforts to hold talks aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine and a second three-sided meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives is to take place this week in the United Arab Emirates.
The issue of ceding internationally recognized Ukrainian territory to Russia remains a major stumbling block. Kyiv rejects Russian calls for it to give up all of its Donbas region, including territory Moscow’s forces have not captured.
Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries.
The ministry said Moscow valued the “purposeful efforts” of the Trump administration in working toward a resolution and understanding Russia’s long-running concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion and its overtures to Ukraine.
It described Trump as “one of the few Western politicians who not only immediately refused to advance meaningless and destructive preconditions for starting a substantive dialogue with Moscow on the Ukrainian crisis, but also publicly spoke about its root causes.”
