By Len Port

Portugal’s minority government, the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, is able to proceed with its new administration program after a no-confidence motion by the Communist Party (PC) was completely rejected this week.

In its program, the AD government has pledged to continue cutting taxes for the middle-class and companies, while maintaining budget surpluses, and having a permanent dialogue with the two main opposition parties, the Chega (CH) and the Socialist Party (PS), on major issues such as immigration.

The Communists this week accused the Montenegro government of not helping “the interests of the workers.” They also opposed the government’s plan to raise defence spending to 2% of GDP.

For now, Prime Minister Montenegro’s fragile minority government still has the backing of both the center-left Socialists and the far-right Chega party.

The Democratic Alliance won more seats in last month’s snap election than in the previous election last year, but it fell short, again, of a working majority, mainly because of the increasing popularity of the far-right Chega party.

So far, the AD is in power for the time being. No new election can be called before the middle of next year. Critically, Andre Ventura, the Chega leader, has said that “it is not time to obstruct“ the government, even though he does not think it is a good one.

Despite Chega’s anti-establishment and anti-immigration attitudes, Prime Minister Montenegro said this week that his government is in for the four-year full term.

The centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD), led by Luís Montenegro, won the most votes in the parliamentary legislative election held on May 18, though not enough to form a stable government.

Despite the fragility of governments in place, Portugal has outperformed most European countries in economic growth, run budget surpluses, and reduced its debt under both centre-left and centre-right administrations.

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Len Port, born in Northern Ireland, worked as a news reporter and correspondent, mainly in Hong Kong and South Africa, before moving to Portugal many years ago.