Portuguese press warns of instability of next government

The victory in Sunday’s election of the current prime minister, conservative Pedro Passos Coelho, was covered by all Portuguese newspapers on Monday, warning however that the next government will be threatened by instability as they do not have an absolute majority.

Most of the Portuguese press took for granted that Passos Coelho will have to form the government after being elected with approximately 39 percent of the vote, almost seven points higher than his main rival, socialist candidate Antonio Costa.

Although a possible tripartite between socialists, the Marxist Left Bloc, and the Communist Partyled coalition may have more deputies than the conservatives, the majority of Portuguese media rules out such a coalition.

This was underlined by newspapers such as the Diario de Noticias, which quoted in its first page the words of Antonio Costa on Sunday when he said that he would not feed a “negative majority.”

The bestselling newspaper in the country, Correio da Manha, pointed to a “government of Passos but with the support of Costa”, while the popular Jornal de Noticias also highlighted the “confidence in the coalition” of conservatives depends on the result of counting the votes.