PSD’s choice for first two years; PS’s for second
After three failed attempts – and a great deal of political maneuverings – the country’s incoming centre right government reached an agreement with PS Socialists (whose leader has said he will “never support a government of the right”) to elect not one but two presidents of the Portuguese parliament.
The solution was ingenious (in that it did not require any kow-towing to CHEGA, which had been trying to force the ‘AD’ alliance’s hand into entering an agreement ‘to secure the legislature’): the centre-right’s choice of former defence minister José Pedro Aguiar Branco will perform the duties of president for the first two years of this government’s mandate; Francisco Assis (the choice of PS Socialists) will take over for the last two years.
The fact that almost no-one expects the government to last two years, let alone the full four, has been diplomatically left to one side.
The main thing is that the first impasse of what will undoubtedly be a checkered legislature has been pushed through, and a solution – that seems to have pleased almost everyone – found.
CHEGA is ‘spitting proverbial tintacks’, but then CHEGA engineered the fiasco of last night, its apparent plan being to force the incoming government’s hand, which did not happen.
As SIC’s Ricardo Costa (brother of outgoing prime minister António) observed: “What was found was the most adult possible solution to a problem that could have been avoided or anticipated, and wasn’t. This was the solution found by the PSD and PS after André Ventura (CHEGA’s leader) cornered them. The PSD didn’t understand what CHEGA was, and now they’ve understood it in the worst way…”
And showing that “the most adult possible solution” does indeed come from adults, the PSD maintained its word that it would not stand in the way of CHEGA MP Diogo Pacheco de Amorim being elected as one of the parliamentary vice-presidents, which has duly happened.
How this minefield of a new legislature progresses remains to be seen: scenes and upsets like those of the last two days’ will potentially happen again; political commentator Bernardo Ferrão (also of SIC) predicts the PS will have to ‘swallow their words about being the only party in opposition’ and negotiate more with PSD “than they had expected”, in order to keep CHEGA in check.
