In February 2011 the Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde (PAICV) won the parliamentary election in Cape Verde with a majority of 37 of the 72 seats in the legislature. In August 2011 Jorge Carlos Fonseca was elected President. He represented the Movimento para a Democracia (MPD) party. Therefore, a period of cohabitation began, the first in Cape Verde’s history.

The first year of cohabitation seems to have been relatively peaceful. The president has used his veto on just one occasion. In July Expresso das Ilhas reports that President Fonseca vetoed the Ecological Tax bill. This was a government bill that was supported by all PAICV deputies and opposed by the MPD. Parliament then passed the bill again with the MPD opposing it once more. A Semana reports that this time, earlier this month, the president signed it.

Looking at the reviews of the year in the newspapers, this seems to have been the major event of the last year. Compared with equivalent periods of cohabitation in Romania and Bulgaria recently, the situation in Cape Verde seems to have been relatively calm.