Conservatively elected speaker of parliament in Portugal American sculptor Richard Serra dies

The Portuguese parliament elected conservative MP José Pedro Aguiar-Branco as its new president on Wednesday. Parliament announced that 160 of the 230 members of the “Assembleia da República” in Lisbon had voted for the politician from the conservative Democratic Alliance (AD). Four delegates from other parties were also elected. Aguiar-Branco’s election only became possible after the socialist opposition party PS gave up its opposition to the conservatives.

On the first attempt the day before, Aguiar-Branco failed, receiving only 88 votes. The AD received the most votes in the early parliamentary elections on March 10, narrowly trumping the Socialists, who have been in power for eight years, but clearly lacked an absolute majority. The conservative alliance has only 80 seats. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa appointed AD boss Luís Montenegro as head of government last week. Montenegro wants to present its cabinet on Thursday. The new government will officially take office on April 2.

The right-wing populist party Chega is considered the big winner of the elections (Enough) by André Ventura, which Montenegro and other critics classify as xenophobic and racist. It succeeded in more than quadrupling the number of mandates: from twelve to more than fifty seats. However, Montenegro has ruled out cooperation with Chega. A ‘grand coalition’ between conservatives and socialists is also considered impossible in Portugal due to irreconcilable differences. (sda/dpa)