Absolute meerderheid voor socialisten bij parlementsverkiezingen Portugal (en)

EUOBSERVER / LISBON - José Sócrates is the new Portuguese prime minister after his Socialist party - for the first time ever in 30 years of Portuguese democracy - won an absolute majority in the Parliament.

In the general elections held on Sunday (20 February), the Portuguese socialist party won 45.5% of the vote claiming all but two of the country's electoral districts.

"Today the old myth that only the right could ever achieve absolute majority [in Portugal] fell", said Mr Sócrates in his victory speech.

According to the socialist secretary-general, this majority is "not only a protest" vote against the centre-right coalition that is in power, but an expression of "a true desire for change" by the Portuguese people.

Other winners in these elections were the Portuguese Communist Party, which remains the third political force in the Parliament with 7.57% of the vote, and the Left Block, an extreme left party that acheived an unprecedented 6.38% of the vote.

The big losers were those currently in power. Taken together, the Social Democrat and Popular Party coalition did not exceed 36% of the vote, with the PSD scoring 28.69% and the PP 7.26%.

Current prime minister and head of the Social Democratic party Pedro Santana Lopes, who replaced José Manuel Barroso when he left office to head the European Commission, took "full responsibility" for the defeat but said he will not resign as leader of the party.

Paulo Portas, head of the Popular Party, resigned after the official election results were revealed, calling them "the worst result obtained by the right" in Portuguese democracy.

No unpopular promises and no explanations

Mr Sócrates is set to be empowered by the socialist president, Jorge Sampaio, in March.

The telegenic party leader, a former environment minister during the socialist government between 1996 and 2002, favours a state model with high social protection, based on the Nordic countries' model.

"I do not agree with a minimum sized state, limited to performing sovereignty functions", Mr Sócrates said.

Mr Sócrates vowed to bring a "technologic shock" to lift the Portuguese economy back to 3% growth per year, and promised to curb the rising unemployment rate by creating 150 000 new jobs in four years.

A leading civil society group of economists and managers has criticized Mr Sócrate's programme, which they say is "vague" and "generalist", pointing out that he has not convincingly explained how he plans to meet these objectives.

Many also say that these cannot be achieved without a lay-off of state employees and an adjustment of the retirement age.