PM accused of “arrogance and haughtiness”
The afternoon has seen bitter debate in parliament as MPs discuss the ‘motion of confidence’ presented by the minority PSD/CDS government that seems destined to fail, triggering new elections.
According to the latest polls, 70% of Portuguese citizens have said they cannot see any reason for elections over the ‘thorny issue’ of whether or not the PM’s former business interests constitute a conflict of interest in his current position.
Much more telling however are the responses to other questions in the poll undertaken by Pitagórica, for Jornal de Notícias.
Of the 70% of people who do not want elections, the majority answered that if they have to come, they would prefer Montenegro off the ballot paper.
In other words, the option for President Marcelo to decide that, instead of elections, he could persuade the minority executive to propose another leader, remains very much on the table.
But in between all this has come the various speeches and interventions in parliament, accusing the prime minister of being the architect of his own downfall.
As satirist Ricardo Araújo Pereira said on Sunday, after surviving two motions of censure, insisting on a motion of confidence which almost all parties say they will reject, was an act of self-harm akin to taking a bath with an electrical toaster attached to a faulty power cable.
This afternoon, the government was in no doubt as to what opposition parties thought of it, and its appeals to PS Socialists for support in the interests of the nation; CHEGA being particularly scathing, saying that a pact with it at the outset would have brought the stability the country requires.
The PM “had in his hands the possibility of building a historic majority”, railed CHEGA leader André Ventura, but instead rejected CHEGA outright, and here we all are at another turning point on an uncertain road.
The debate lurched clumsily through the afternoon, ending with a vote on the motion of confidence well after 7pm, which was rejected by the majority.
More news tomorrow, with a ‘roadmap’ towards what looks like the 3rd legislative elections for Portugal in three years.
