Portugal’s minority centre-right government fell on Tuesday following a decisive defeat of confidence, paving the way for the nation’s third early general election in three years.
Legislators voted down the motion 142-88, with no abstentions, in a major setback for Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who had been in power for only 11 months. Montenegro had summoned the vote last Thursday after the opposition questioned a consultancy firm he started, now owned by his sons, challenging his integrity.
Defending himself to parliament, Montenegro denied charges of moral wrongdoing, calling them “insulting” and politically driven. “The accusation that I confused business with politics is purely untrue. If you repeat a lie, it doesn’t make it true it just pollutes the political climate,” he asserted.
Now that the government has assumed a caretaker position, whether or not to dissolve parliament and hold an election is the president’s choice. He will hear from the political parties on Wednesday and from his advisory Council of State on Thursday before announcing a decision. The president has indicated that the new election may be held as early as mid-May.
Montenegro lashed out at the collapse, saying his government had tried to avoid a snap election. He had tried to convince the opposition Socialist Party to abstain or negotiate terms for pulling the motion, even suggesting he submit himself to a parliamentary investigation into the business activities of his family. But the Socialists would not negotiate a timeframe for the inquiry.
Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos dismissed Montenegro’s last-minute attempts to reach a deal, calling them “desperate and shameful.” He placed full blame on the prime minister, stating that Montenegro had proven “unfit to govern.”
As Portugal faces another potential election, political uncertainty continues to grip the country, raising concerns over governance stability.
