Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa confirmed on Thursday its intention to dissolve Parliament after the split between the socialist government and its former allies of the radical left over the next state budget.
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The Portuguese called to the polls. Early parliamentary elections will be organized on January 30, 2022. Conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Thursday (November 4) confirmed his intention to dissolve parliament and decided on the date of the elections, which should normally have taken place in the fall of 2023.
The country is at a political stalemate due to the rift between Antonio Costa’s socialist government and his former radical left allies over the next state budget. The rejection of the budget has “totally reduced the government’s support base”, while 2022 will be “a decisive year for the sustainable exit from the pandemic and the social crisis that has hit us”, argued the Head of State in a televised address.
This will be the third national election that Portugal is organizing in the space of a year, after the presidential election last January and the municipal elections at the end of September. Even before the rejection of the finance law for 2022, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had warned that this would lead to early legislative elections. The head of state sought to force the government and the extreme left parties to reach a compromise because, according to him, the budget was “fundamental” to revive the economy thanks to European funds from the post-Covid-19 recovery plan.