President of Portugal to dissolve Parliament; Early offsets must be marked | World
The consultative body of the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, of the Council of State, approved on Wednesday (3) his proposal to dissolve the Parliament, after the project parliamentarians rejected that of the 2022 Budget of the government last week , paving the way for an election.
A statement from the presidential office said only that a majority of Council members approved the dissolution of Parliament, but did not say when an early election could take place.
Rebelo de Sousa still needs to sanction the dissolution decree.
Parliament’s rejection of the Budget does not automatically trigger an election, but the president, who is due to address the nation on Thursday night, warned before the vote that he would have no other option.
The State Budget of the minority socialist government was rejected by the left and right parties, ending six years of political stability under Prime Minister António Costa.
Rebelo de Sousa met with the main political parties over the weekend and many told him that the early modification will take place in January. The Portuguese newspaper “Expresso” stated that Rebelo de Sousa still wants time to reflect on a date.
Earlier on Wednesday, Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira told Reuters that an early election seemed the best option to end the stalemate and would not undermine the government’s commitment to meeting fiscal targets or growth prospects.
But analysts say an election alone may not resolve the political stalemate because it may be difficult for a single party or traditional alliance to gain a stable majority of seats in parliament.
Opinion polls show that support for Socialists has changed little from the 36% chosen in the last national election in 2019, with Social Democrats in second place at around 27%.
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