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Portuguese Pols Promote Marriage Equalityby Kilian MelloyMonday Sep 28, 2009 The party of Portugal’s Prime Minister is had hoped to draw votes, and distinguish itself from its electoral rivals, by adding marriage equality to its platform.
A Sept. 18 Euronews article reported that Portugal’s Socialist Prime Minister, José Socrates, was in a close contest with the country’s Social Democratic Party candidate, Manuela Ferreira Leite.
The inclusion of family equality rights by the Socialists was seen as risky, because it could alienate many voters in the mostly Catholic country.
In the end, Socrates held on to his position as Prime Minister, but with his party not in the majority in the Parliament, he is expected to need to work more closely with other parties.
The New York Times reported in a Sept. 27 article that the Socialists had taken about 38% of the vote, leaving them with a leadership position, but costing them their former majority status.
The issue of marriage equality did not seem to cost the party in a major way.
But voters may have other issues on their minds. Even before the election, with Portugal’s economic woes continuing year after year, the move toward marriage equality had been criticized as a deflection from other urgent business.
The Euronews article quoted Nuno Saravia as saying that marriage equality is "a red-line issue, that shows the split between right and left.
"But it’s also a windbreak, sheltering candidates from the really essential questions," Saravia, of Portuguese newspaper "Diario de Noticias," added.
"In any case, just as the early days of the campaign showed us, it won’t be a central theme," Saravia stated.
Portugal has suffered a string of recessions in recent years, and unemployment has skyrocketed, the article noted.
With neither large party seeming to offer much new to voters, small parties on the left and right alike hope to gain more influence over the next government.
The article quoted the leader of the conservative Popular Party, Pedro Mota Soares, as saying, "The central bloc in Portugal, the two big parties, are both basically center-left parties. They haven’t had good results.
"Their vote has even slipped if you compare them to other results in parliament," Soares went on.
"Other parties with other visions have been doing well. So it’s a sort of a protest vote against this two-party system which has a lock on power."
Before the election, Saraiva predicted that, "There’ll be a protest vote allied with the big parties’ inability to mobilize their electorates," the article reported.
"That’s because they’re unhappy, and not prepared to deliver an absolute majority again."
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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