The British elections could pass over the heads of the Portuguese because Britain has lost its relevance on the European stage, according to a top Portuguese political analyst and commentator.
Nuno Rogeiro believes that many Portuguese, even well-educated ones, simply didn’t sufficiently understand the British constitution or electoral system to grasp last Thursday’s unusual hung parliament election.
The political commentator was speaking to the Algarve Resident at the British Ambassador’s Election Night Party in Lisbon on Thursday.
“Of course, the Portuguese, like the Americans, are used to hung parliaments, particularly in the case of the Americans since Florida in 2000,” he said, but added that it was a situation that was not so well understood in the case of the United Kingdom, even though there have actually been 10 hung parliaments over the past 200 years.
“One thing that I think is the main message from this is that British politics today is much less relevant than it was 10 years ago.
 Watching the first results for Sunderland East come in at the British Embassy election night party. |
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“This is for a series of reasons. I don’t think that, these days, people see Britain as an engine for change in Europe, because after the Tony Blair period there was a quagmire period and I also see that in the way that the Portuguese media has been devoting space and coverage of these elections,” he said.
Nuno Rogeiro said it was obvious that the British elections were “not on the top of anyone’s agenda”, which he believed was a pity because the British elections were important.
The analyst also said that he didn’t believe that the average person in Portugal really understood enough about the voting and electoral system and the way it worked, which included university first year constitutional students, from his experience.
“They don’t really understand how the British constitution is structured; some of them think it is unwritten, which is not really the case since lots of the sources are written down,” he added.
“What I will find very interesting is to know if and what shape an eventual coalition government takes. What horse-trading concessions will be made by the partners in that coalition, especially if the Conservatives try and form a pact with some of the smaller parties?” he said.
Nuno Rogeiro rightly identified electoral reform as the big issue for discussion if the Conservatives formed a minority coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. “There could be a referendum but then the Conservatives and Labour could vote against that,” he said.
Paulo Portas, leader of the CDS-PP Party in Portugal, added: “After 10 years of Labour government, the Tories are back. I believe Cameron is going to be Prime Minister, either with or without a hung parliament. People want change, they voted against Labour and they want a new start even though it’s true that Mr. Tony Blair didn’t touch Mrs. Thatcher’s essential legacy.”
Chris Graeme
