Portugal’s ruling Socialists win surprise victory in snap poll

Portugal’s centre-left Socialists have won an outright parliamentary majority in Sunday’s snap election, securing a strong new mandate for Prime Minister Antonio Costa as the country prepares to deploy billions of dollars in European Union aid in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The result, boosted by a higher than expected turnout despite the coronavirus pandemic, came as a surprise after the Socialists had lost much of their lead in recent opinion polls.

In a ballot that took place amid a surge of coronavirus cases blamed on the Omicron variant, and with about one million people with COVID-19 allowed to leave home to cast their ballots, the Socialists took 117 seats in the 230-seat parliament, up from 108 in the outgoing assembly.