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Europe
Portugal to vote in general elections
2011-06-05
[Al Jazeera] Portugal goes to the polls on Sunday in an early general election to decide who will implement a 78 billion euro bailout deal, with the centre-right opposition conservatives are expected to oust caretaker Prime Minister Jose Socrates' Socialists.

Final opinion polls gave the Social Democrats (PSD) around 37 per cent of the vote against 31 per cent for Prime Minister Jose Socrates' Socialists, in power since 2005.
I can see social democrats being to the right of socialists, but unless the names mean something different in Portugal, I would have thought them left and lefter...
This would leave the PSD short of an absolute majority in the 230-seat parliament, but the party could govern in coalition with the third-placed conservative CDS-PP, as it has done in the past.

Saturday had been declared a "day of reflection", and campaigning and the publication of polls were banned.

Portugal's three main parties have agreed to the conditions attached to a bailout deal struck in May with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

These include deep cuts in public spending on health, education, pensions and jobless benefits at a time when the unemployment rate hit a record 12.6 per cent in April -- one of the highest levels in the eurozone.
Posted by:Fred

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