50 days later, António Costa has been appointed Prime Minister

The President appointed Costa as Prime Minister. He has already announced the names of the ministers in his government. The Left Bloc and the Communist Party have issued comments on the announcement.

2015/11/24 - 8:06pm

This morning, António Costa, the secretary-general of the Socialist Party (PS), was once again called to a meeting by President Cavaco Silva. After the meeting, which lasted an hour, António Costa did not make any comments, but the President issued a statement confirming he would appoint Costa. Since then, the Socialist Party has already made public the names of the ministers and secretaries of state. There will be seventeen ministers, only four of which are women.

Yesterday, after Cavaco’s meeting with António Costa, the President issued a statement asking the Socialists to explain six items of the agreement with the left-wing parties. The Socialists answered promptly, via a written letter which was delivered the same day.

According to Catarina Martins, the spokesperson for the Left Bloc, the announcement marks "the beginning of a new cycle, committed to recovering people’s incomes and defending the welfare state. Recovering pensions, increasing the minimum wage, putting a stop to privatisations, fighting precarity are at the core of this commitment”.
João Oliveira, the Communist Party’s chief whip, criticised the President’s statement, declaring that “after having created a political crisis by appointing the right-wing government, the President confirmed that he had been trying, right until the last minute, to keep the right wing in power, even considering to keep them on as a Caretaker Government and disrespecting the will of the Portuguese people expressed in the elections.”

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The President asked António Costa to explain six items of the left-wing agreement

After last week’s marathon of meetings, the President has finally asked to speak to António Costa and announced he will consider appointing him Prime Minister, provided António Costa explains six items of the left wing agreement.

2015/11/23 - 4:22pm

Over the past week, President Cavaco Silva met with employers’ associations, bankers, economists, trade unions and all parties with elected MPs, a total of 31 meetings, but he never gave any indication as to when he would appoint the new Prime Minister and what his choice would be. Today, 50 days after the elections and 12 days after the government was ousted, Cavaco Silva has asked again to speak to António Costa, the secretary-general of the Socialist Party (PS). The meeting lasted for thirty minutes, after which António Costa did not speak publicly. The President issued a statement asking the Socialists to explain the following six items of the agreement with the left-wing parties:

“1) passage of confidence motions

2) passage of State Budgets and the State Budget for 2016 in particular

3) observance of the budgetary discipline rules that apply to all eurozone countries and to which the Portuguese state is committed, i.e. those arising from the Stability and Growth Pact, the Budgetary Treaty, the European Stability Mechanism and Portugal’s participation in the Economic and Monetary Union and the Banking Union;

4) respect for Portugal’s international commitments in the scope of collective defence organisations;

5) role of the Standing Social Dialogue Council, given the importance of its contribution to the country’s development and social cohesion;

6) stability of the financial system, given its pivotal role in funding the Portuguese economy.”

The Socialist Party will provide the President with a written answer, probably still this afternoon.

Even with an Interim government, the Parliament has been discussing and voting bills put forth by the left-wing majority. One of these bills, which passed last week, repeals the changes to abortion laws introduced by the right-wing government. Another bill, submitted by the PS, the Left Bloc and the PEV, recognised same-sex couples’ right to adopt children, which is a historic advance in civic rights in Portugal.

Next week, member’s bills submitted by the left wing will continue to be discussed. On Thursday, 26 November, Parliament will vote on Socialist Party bills, supported by left-wing parties, to change austerity measures that had been implemented by the right wing: wage cuts for public workers, reduction and removal of progressive tax brackets for income tax, and the solidarity tax. On the same day, debates will also include opposing bills, submitted by the right wing, to reduce or maintain these same austerity measures. Medically assisted procreation will be discussed on the same day, with bills from the Socialist Party and the Left Bloc, as well as ending standardised exams for 4^th grade children, which had also been introduced by the right-wing government during their previous term.

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