Portugal Is In Suspense After Election Produces No Clear Winner And A Surging Populist Party
HuffPost
Portugal’s political future is hanging in the balance after a general election that has left two moderate mainstream parties closely contesting the race.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s political future is hanging in the balance after a general election Sunday, with two moderate mainstream parties closely contesting the race and set to wait weeks for a decision on the winner after an unprecedented surge in support for a populist party.
The center-right Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance won 77 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, Portugal’s Parliament, after all votes cast in Portugal were counted.
The center-left Socialist Party, in power the past eight years, got 76 seats.
The deciding votes will come from voters abroad to decide four parliamentary seats after an election night full of suspense. That count could take more than two weeks.
The hard-right Chega (Enough) party captured 48 seats in a milestone result that presented an unprecedented challenge to politics-as-usual, underscoring a drift to the right in the European Union.
