Once Marcelo has talked to the various parties, he will convene a Council of State, for Thursday
President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is meeting with political parties with parliamentary seats today to discuss the political crisis and the scenario of a snap election, writes Lusa.
Even though Marcelo has signalled that if the motion of confidence was rejected (as it was last night), causing the government to fall, the “electoral calendar” would point to mid-May, the state news agency says he has “never explicitly referred to bringing forward the legislative elections”.
The scenario nevertheless does still seem the most likely.
Once Marcelo has talked to the various parties, he will convene a Council of State, for Thursday, which is the next ‘constitutionally obligatory step’ before the dissolution of parliament.
The president has insisted that it is essential that “the economy, society and people’s lives continue”, in a period that will not be “longer than two months”, ahead of municipal elections later in the year, followed by presidential elections in January.
Lusa adds again that the country’s head of state has “expressed concern about bringing forward the elections in a scenario of international crisis”.
For now, nothing will become any clearer before this evening, by which time Marcelo will have spoken with PSD (11am), PS (midday), CHEGA (1pm), Iniciativa Liberal (2pm), Bloco de Esquerda (3pm), PCP/ CDU communists (4pm), LIVRE (5pm) and PAN (6pm).
