ABSTRACT
The 2011 legislative elections in Portugal took place under one of the most acute economic crises ever faced by the country in four decades of democracy. To be sure, all general elections in Portugal since at least 1999 have taken place under some sort of economic distress, often compounded by (and manifesting itself in) acute political crises. However, the sheer magnitude of the economic problems faced this time was rather different from those that characterized the preceding elections. Unlike what was occurring in 2011 with many European economies, which were by then slowly recovering from the worst moments of the Great Recession, the Portuguese economy had become a disaster zone. GDP was still contracting, the unemployment rate was already above 12% – the highest since reliable statistics
have been collected – and consumer confidence had reached the lowest level ever recorded. By the end of 2010, central government debt represented 93% of GDP, and the budget deficit reached almost 10% of GDP, the largest in more than a century. To top it all, in April 2011, the Socialist (minority) government was forced to admit that the country had become unable to meet debt obligations, requesting financial rescue from the EU and the IMF. The memorandum of agreement signed between the Portuguese government and the so-called “troika” (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) on 3 May 2011, which allowed Portugal access to a E78 billion bailout, contained a long and detailed list of measures aiming at deficit reduction that any future government would have to implement. This agreement, which involved not only the government’s Socialist Party (PS) but also two other opposition parties, the Social-Democratic Party (PSD, centre-right) and the Social and Democratic Centre-Popular Party (CDS-PP, right), included cuts in public sector wages and jobs, reductions in the costs of health, education, and state-owned enterprises, cuts in pensions and unemployment benefits, tax increases, and a large privatization programme. The next elections were just around the corner, to be held on 5 June.
