- Title: PORTUGAL: PORTUGAL'S OPPOSITION SOCIALISTS SCORE A BIG WIN IN NATIONAL ELECTIONS
- Date: 20th February 2005
- Summary: (BN03)LISBON, PORTUGAL (FEBRUARY 20) (REUTERS) 1. SV PARTY SUPORTERS WAVING PARTY FLAGS; WOMAN WAVING FLAGS (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. MCU (Portuguese) SOCIALIST LEADER JOSE SOCRATES SAYING "The Socialist Party has a majority to govern Portugal. This is not a majority of protest. It is a way to build a new future for Portugal" 0.22 3. LV SOCRATES 0.27 4. MCU (Portuguese)SOCRATES SAYING: "Today Portugal has a new majority and a new hope,I accept this election victory with humility and a sense of responsibility. 0.40 5. LV SOCRATES 0.42 6. MCU (Portuguese)SOCRATES SAYING: "My desire is to put this victory at the service of the Portugues and at the service of Portugal/CU SUPPORTERS CHANTING SLOGAN PS (3 SHOTS) 1.00 (BN03)LISBON, PORTUGAL (FEBRUARY 21) (REUTERS) 7. SV SOCRATES LEAVING FROM CAMPAIGN CENTRE AND ENTERING IN CAR; CROWD WAVING BANNERS 1.20 8. TV/SV SOCRATES ARRIVING AT SOCIALIST HEADQUARTERS; FLAGS; SOCRATES WAVING AT HIS SUPPORTERS FROM SOCIALIST HEADQUARTERS BALCONY; LV OF SUPPORTERS WAVING FLAGS IN SQUARE OUTSIDE SOCIALIST PARTY (5 SHOTS) 1.54 9. SV SOCRATES SHOUTING "Long live socialist party, long live Portugal" 2.05 10. TV CROWD CHEERING AND WAVING PARTY FLAGS 2.12 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th March 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LISBON, PORTUGAL
- Country: Portugal
- Reuters ID: LVA9ECLF8PWR5A675LL20SUE2LD5
- Story Text: Portugal's socialists score a big win in national
elections.
Portugal's opposition Socialists scored their
biggest-ever electoral victory on Sunday (February 20, 2005) as
voters ousted centre-right Prime Minister Pedro Santana
Lopes after only seven months in power, official results
showed.
Western Europe's poorest nation swung to the left in
giving Socialist leader Jose Socrates an absolute majority
in parliament needed to implement a platform the party said
would boost the lagging economy.
Analysts said the resounding win amid a large turnout
was a welcome sign of stability for the nation of 10
million people.
Socrates' government will be Portugal's fourth in three
years.
Santana Lopes said he had telephoned Socialist leader
Jose Socrates and conceded defeat.
"I wish for him and his family, his team, the greatest
good fortune for the task the Portuguese decided to entrust
him with" the prime minister said in a televised speech.
President Jorge Sampaio dissolved parliament early in
December, citing lack of confidence in the centre-right
coalition government after a bout of instability.
Sunday's victory was the Socialists biggest since a
revolution overthrew a rightist dictatorship in 1974.
The Socialists won 119 of 230 seats in parliament,
according to preliminary results from the National
Elections Commission. The Social Democrats won 73.
The two main parties were trailed by the Communists,
with 14 seats; the rightist Popular Party, the Social
Democrats coalition partner with 12 deputies; and the Left
Bloc with eight seats. The results do not include the four
deputies to be elected by Portuguese living abroad.
Socrates' new government will face the challenge of
boosting an economy slowing down even as it recovers from
recession and of closing a stubborn budget deficit that
breached euro currency zone limits in 2001.
Santana Lopes, the then Lisbon mayor, replaced Jose
Manuel Barroso as prime minister in July when the latter
left to become president of the European Commission.
Socrates, 47, has vowed to boost economic growth to 3
percent a year through technological investment. The
central bank has forecast growth this year at 1.6 percent,
below the European Union average for the fifth year in a
row.
Socrates also has said he would cut public spending,
now nearing half of gross domestic product, by reducing the
public work force through attrition.
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