Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa won Portugal’s general election and will now have an absolute majority in parliament, meaning far-left parties are no longer needed to back his budgets.
Costa’s center-left Socialists took about 42% of the vote and increased the number of seats held in the 230-seat chamber to at least 117 from 108, based on 99% of voting districts reporting, according to the government’s election results website. The last time the Socialists won an absolute majority in parliament was in 2005. The opposition center-right PSD party garnered about 28% of the vote.
Costa, 60, will oversee an economy that’s trying to bounce back after the pandemic with the help of European Union recovery funds that began to flow last year. The government said in April that the EU pandemic recovery plan will have an economic impact of 22 billion euros ($25 billion) in Portugal through 2025, and estimated that gross domestic product in 2025 will be 3.5% higher than it would be without that plan.
