Thread by @Vinncent

I wrote about the elections here in Portugal yesterday, and the success of an unlikely alliance between moderate socialists, radical leftists, and communists

theatlantic.com/international/…

This is the rare corner of Europe where the far right is nowhere near power (they did elect a single representative), and a country which very much surprised EU officials by growing out of the debt crisis, reversing austerity, and balancing the budget, all at the same time

Why has the far right failed here? Well, there's the legacy of recent dictatorship, and the fact that there's been little immigration in recent years. But one surprising thing I heard often (and not just from the left) was the importance of an old-school, organized working class

Here's more detailed results, from @Publico.

PS = Socialist Party
PPD-PSD = Center-right
BE = Left Bloc
CDU = Communists and Greens
CDS = conservative People's Party
PAN = People-Animals-Nature
Chega = far right

First one is gains / losses vs 2015, Second is the 2019 results

This means that, a bit ironically, the success of the quite left-wing (by current EU standards) geringonça "contraption" has given the PS itself more room to maneuver, meaning they COULD be more centrist (as they often have been in the past) if they want over the next four years.

They're in talks now and we'll see soonish what the composition of the new "contraption" is - my focus so far had been just explaining the success of the government in power since 2015