Costa’s Socialists win Portuguese election

Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s Socialists (PS) came out on top of parliamentary elections held Sunday in Portugal. The first forecasts showed his party expanded its number of mandates in the 230-seat parliament but fell short of winning an outright majority, meaning Costa will need to build a coalition government.

Costa declared victory, saying “we accept the task of ruling Portugal for the next four years with determination and responsibility.”

Forecasts published b public broadcaster RTP put the Socialists in the overall range between 35% and 39% of the vote, which would give them more seats than in the last election in 2015 in a boost coming after four years of solid economic growth.

The main opposition center-right Social Democrats (PSD) were estimated to have scored between 27% and 31%.

Although the projected results would likely see PS’s seats in parliament from 86 to 112, a party needs 116 to rule independently. This means Costa will need to seek an alliance with another party. The incumbent PM said before the election, however, that he had not agreed to a coalition with any other party before the election.

Via Euronews