sexta-feira, 23 de janeiro de 2015

Opposition Coalition Fiasco

After the success of the coalition for change in the municipal elections, momentum was gathering for an enlarged coalition to topple the PSD at the forthcoming elections. This looks increasingly unlikely.

Following the purge at the City Hall, last year, when the Mayor ditched three of his elected councillors, with the backing of the Socialist party, the oposition momentum disappeared. The New Democracy Party left the coalition and the Bloco Esquerda has rejected joining a new coalition for the regional elections. The Socialist Party is now negotiating a much reduced coalition with the Labour Party (PTP), Earth Party (MPT) and Party for the Animals and Nature (PAN).

The Christian Democrats CDS had mooted joining a coalition with the Socialists if the candidate for the Presidency of the Regional Government would be someone other than Vitor Freitas, the current Socialist Leader. Vitor has no curriculum and even less charisma and is not taken by the electorate as a serious candidate for heading a government. The New Democracy Party would also consider joining a coalition, if the candidate was someone else.

Last week, the Funchal constituency of the Socialist Party, lead by Iglesias, called for Vitor to reconsider his candidature and open the possibility for a broader coalition, namely with the CDS.
There were moves also to evict the Labour Party of José Manuel Coelho, from a such a coalition between the CDS and the Socialists. Judging by the comments on the Diário news article, Igleasias' plea was also a manouver to put forward Cafofo, the new Mayor of Funchal as a coalition candidate (Iglesias is his right hand man).

 However, the Socialist Party has other much more credible, experienced and appealing possible candidates. It looks unlikely that any of these will step forward, however, and that a split opposition will hand a new overall majority to Albuquerque's PSD.

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