Portugal’s president announced on Thursday that he is dissolving Parliament and calling a snap election for January 30, following the minority Socialist government’s defeat in a key vote on the country’s spending plans.
The announcement, in a televised address to the nation, was widely expected. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had previously said Portugal would go to the ballot box two years ahead of schedule if the government’s 2022 state budget proposal was rejected by parliament, which happened last week.
The ballot will elect 230 lawmakers to Parliament, where political parties will decide who forms a government.
The election comes at a sensitive time for the country of 10.3 million people, as it is poised to begin deploying some 45 billion euros ($52 billion) in aid from the European Union to help fire up the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent opinion polls suggest the center-left Socialist Party will win re-election but will again fall short of a parliamentary majority.
Given the procedural requirements, a new state budget proposal may not come before parliament until April. That could put the brakes on an economic rebound.
As things stand, the COVID-19 pandemic shouldn’t disrupt an election, though health authorities have warned about a potential winter resurgence in Europe.
A popular mass vaccination campaign has helped Portugal, for the moment, largely contain COVID-19. The country has on average been reporting fewer than 1,000 new cases a day since mid-September, with daily deaths in single figures.
