It's been a little while since I posted in here, I've just been far too busy with other things...(urgh, I nearly wrote 'projects' then, I hate it when people say that, it makes them sound like such dilettantes.)
Anyway, since I last wrote in here we have a new, same government. The election of last week went smoothly and, amusingly for me as an outsider, produced a result that managed to please no-one (probably with the exception of Paulo Portas).
As expected Socrates' PS lost a load of seats, relinquishing their majority in parliament but still being the largest party and so forming a minority government. PSD gained a few seats but after a major case of mishandling the ball didn't pick up nearly as many as they had hoped to. They had tried to play some dirty tricks involving leaking emails and communications about government spying but it was all so badly done that it ended up back firing on PSD, and the President, Carvaco Silva, and making them look a bit incompetent. It's nice to see that doing things 'em cima do joelho' extends all the way up the government.
As far as the smaller parties went there were mixed feelings. The communists were replaced by Bloco de Esquerda as the main left wing opposition but early exit polls had put BE with as many as 22 seats so their eventual 16 was a bit disappointing (even though this meant they had doubled their tally from the last elections).
The really big winner was Paulo Portas' CDS-PP who went from 12 seats to 21, a worrying swing to the right.
All this means that the next few years will mean muddling through and trying to make friends with people who have just been stabbed in the back. It should make things a little interesting at least.
Roll on the municipal elections.
