Portugal's Anti-euro Left Barred From Taking Power

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Indian Express

Portugal has entered dangerous waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe's monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding Eurosceptic parties from taking office on grounds of national interest.

Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal's constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.

He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets. Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership.

"In 40 years of democracy, no government in Portugal has ever depended on the support of anti-European forces, that is to say forces that campaigned to abrogate the Lisbon Treaty, the Fiscal Compact, the Growth and Stability Pact, as well as to dismantle monetary union and take Portugal out of the euro, in addition to wanting the dissolution of Nato," he said.

Read more: http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/Portugals-Anti-euro-Left-Barred-From-Taking-Power/2015/10/24/article3095038.ece

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Another EU trainwreck

[hobbit709]

1. Looks like someone is owned in fee simple.

history shows what happens when the people are thwarted.

[Demeter]

2. Well, Here's a Howdy-Do

Can't call it a democracy now, can they?

[frizzled]

3. If you know early American history, the parallels with pre-federal days are eerie.

Clearly Europe needs an external threat so they all stop squabbling and agree on basic common goods like a bank and an army.

[sabbat hunter]

4. except that

the Left did not win the election

The current government won a plurarity of the vote, but short of enough votes for a majority. The Socialist party came in second. The Left party (formerly the communists) won about 10%, while the traditional communists won 8.2%
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/05/us-portugal-election-idUSKCN0RY00520151005

What the president of Portugal did is stop the Communists, or the Left Party from being part of a coalition with the Socialists.

The OP article makes it seem like the Left party won a majority, which they did not.

In a parliamentary system, the party with the most votes gets the first shot at forming a government. That is exactly what is happening here.
Despite some rhetoric from the Socialist party leader, it is quite possible that they will form a coalition with the center-right, in exchange for concessions on austerity.

[mathematic]

5. This is an opinion article written by an Oaklahoma City Bombing truther(!)

This guy is painting a picture to inspire and hearten his anti-EU cause.

Go ahead and look it up, it took me 2 minutes.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

6. Another

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/portugal-left-vows-to-topple-government-with-no-confidence-vote-1.2404969

[mathematic]

7. And you chose to OP on the opinion article for the ideologically compatible snippets

Isn't that the point, after all?

You linked the garbage opinion article version of the story so you could present this as some sort of great right wing usurping of the people's will to destroy the european union when the reality is that this is fairly typical multiparty parliamentary democracy in action.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

9. It's not opinion, unless the Irish Times has exactly the same opinion

[MowCowWhoHow III]

10. BTW I've just read the rules for this forum

No analysis or opinion pieces.

So walk the walk and report me.

[librechik]

11. The sort of non-democratic hoax the US lives in now

has spread everywhere. When are we going to wake up and solve the problem we have (that we live without democratic representative government while our leaders pretend everything is still okay) instead of moping about how we need to elect more Lefties. This is what happens when we elect more Lefties.

[roamer65]

12. I will quote John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

"Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."

[Warren Stupidity]

13. wow. That is an impressive abrogation of democratic principles.