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PORTUGAL’S President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was re-elected on Sunday with 61 per cent of the vote.
Mr Rebelo de Sousa has no party allegiance during his presidency but is from the Social Democratic Party, which is on the right of Portuguese politics. But he has worked closely with the minority Socialist Party (PS) government of Antonio Costa, which relies on votes from the Communist Party (PCP)-led Left Bloc in parliament.
PS candidate Ana Gomes came a distant second with 13 per cent, far-right Chega’s Andre Ventura third with nearly 12 per cent and the PCP fourth on 4.3 per cent.
The office of president does not have significant power in Portugal, though Mr Rebelo de Sousa’s predecessor Anibal Cavaco Silva sparked a constitutional crisis in 2015 when he asked right-wing PM Pedro Passos Coelho to stay in government despite losing an election on the grounds that the Socialist Party might go into coalition with the communists, who were “anti-European forces” opposed to membership of Nato and the EU. He was forced to back down.
