Latest polls put PS ‘ahead’ on points, against right-wing majority
Tonight is the night that the almost daily dose of political debates ahead of the elections on March 10 comes to an end, with the face-to-face of the two men fighting to become Portugal’s next prime minister: PS Socialists’ Pedro Nuno Santos, and PSD social democrat leader Luís Montenegro, heading up AD (the Democratic Alliance, bringing together two other parties of the right, CDS-PP and PPM).
The debate to be broadcast over SIC/ RTP and TVI at 8.30 pm this evening is expected to cover ‘hot topics’ including housing, health, education and taxes – to hear the proposals that “divide the major parties that seek to govern the country for the next four years”.
As opposed to the half hour debates that have been held since February 6, this one is due to run for an hour and a half at a time when repeated polls don’t really show much in the way of ‘change’ with regards to voting intentions: the situation is basically neck-and-neck.
The latest Aximage poll taken for Diário de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias and TVI, suggests PS Socialists ‘lead’ voting intentions with 33,1% against AD’s 27,7%, but “if elections were tomorrow”, there would still be a majority of the right, because of the numbers likely to vote CHEGA/ Iniciativa Liberal.
This has been the likely panorama since before the debates began – thus questions today have been asked as to whether any of this is really ‘worth it’. Do televised debates help citizens make up their minds? Certainly one young man questioned on air said that for him they were a form of entertainment – nothing more. He stressed that they didn’t help him make up his mind, as they essentially involved two people throwing insults at each other.
This has not always been the case: last night’s debate between Luís Montenegro and the leader of Iniciativa Liberal was extremely courteous, with lots of common ground acknowledged. It potentially will have helped some people decide on how they will vote on March 10, but overwhelming, as all the polls have shown, the results remain ‘wide open’.
