Prime Minister José Sócrates has presented his new government to the President, Cavaco Silva. It is a single-party minority socialist government. In the recent legislative election, the socialists emerged as the largest party with 97 of the 230 seats in the parliament, but they lost their absolute majority. There have been negotiations with opposition parties, but a formal coalition agreement was impossible to reach.

The composition of the government is available here.

The next element of the process is governed by Art. 192 of the Constitution, which states:

1. Within at most ten days of its appointment, the Government shall submit its Programme to the Assembly of the Republic for consideration, by means of a Prime Ministerial statement.
2. In the event that the Assembly of the Republic is not in full session, its President shall obligatorily call it for this purpose.
3. The debate shall not last for more than three days, and until it is closed, any parliamentary group may make a motion rejecting the Programme, and the Government may request the passage of a confidence motion.
4. Rejection of the Government’s Programme shall require an absolute majority of all the Members in full exercise of their office.

So, the government does not need a majority in favour of its programme, it just has to avoid a majority against.

Just two weeks after the legislative election, local elections were held yesterday in Portugal.

The following image gives the overall total, though the figures are still being slightly updated:

Source: Diárío di Notícias

The best comparison is with the 2005 local elections rather than the recent general election. The results of the 2005 municipal elections are available here. Then, the PS won 35.8%. In general terms, it seems as if the PSD headed 157 municipalities after 2005 and that this figure may now fall to 138. By contrast, the small increase in the PS vote means that it will probably gain 22 municipalities and will now head 131 of them. This is the party’s best ever local election result.

The legislative election in Portugal was held on 27 September.

Here is the result (2005 in brackets):

PS (Socialists): 36.6%, 96 seats (45.0%, 121)
PSD (Social democrats – conservatives): 29.1%, 78 seats (28.8%, 75)
CDS-PP (Christian democrats): 10.5%, 21 seats (7.2%, 12)
BE (Left block): 9.9%, 16 seats (6.4%, 8)
CDU (Communists/Greens): 7.9%, 15 seats (7.5%, 14)
Source: Diárío di Notícias

No other party won more than 1 per cent. Completely full results can be found here. Electoral Geography has the results by region.

Thus, the PS lost votes but won the election, though it will have to govern either as a minority or in coalition. The incumbent PM and PS leader, José Sócrates, has not committed himself to any form of government yet.

In terms of the opinion polls, the opposition PSD did slightly worse than had been predicted, while the CDS did much better than expected.

The legislative election will be held in Portugal on 27 September. Below is the most recent opinion poll (July 2009), though since this time Prime Minister Socrates’ poll rating, and that of his party, the PS, is likely to have declined. He is currently embroiled in the so-called Freeport scandal. This scandal dates back to 2002 when he was Minister of the Environment. He is alleged to have changed the status of a particular piece of protected land so as to grant a licence to a UK company, Freeport, to build a shopping centre on it. Money is alleged to have changed hands in return. There is a report here.

PS (Socialists): 35,5%
PSD (Social democrats – conservatives): 34,2%
BE (Left block): 14,3%
CDU (Communists/Greens): 7,4%
CDS-PP (Christian democrats): 4,4%

Source: Barómetro Político Marktest

On the basis of this poll, the options seem to be either PS or PSD minority government; a PS/PSD grand coalition; or just possibly a PS-BE coalition.

The EP election was held in Portugal on Sunday.

The turnout was 37%. The EP is reporting the following results (2004 in brackets):

Partido Social democratica (PPD/PSD) – 31.7%, 8 seats (33.3% with CDS-PP, 9)
Partido Socialista (PS) – 26.6%, 7 seats (44.5%, 12)
Bloco de esquerda – 10.7%, 3 seats (4.9%, 1)
Coligacao democrática unitária (CDU – PCP-PEV) – 10.7%, 2 seats (9.1%, 2)
Partido popular (CDS-PP) – 8.4%, 2 seats (2004 with PSD)
Others registered nearly 12%.

A legislative election is scheduled for Portugal in September. In the 2005 legislative election, the PS won 45% and is currently the incumbent government. Obviously, its support has fallen dramatically, even if EP elections are not necessarily a good indicator of support in legislative elections. In 2005 the main opposition party, the centre-right PSD, won 28.8%, so its support is up compared with then, but not enough to form a single-party government. I have no sense as to whether the PCP-PEV would contemplate joining a PS government, or whether a PSD-PP coalition would win enough seats in parliament. Overall, it looks as if there could be an interesting election coming up.