Portugal’s president announces early elections for March 2024

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Thursday announced he will dissolve the country’s parliament in December and hold early elections in March 2024.

The announcement followed Prime Minister António Costa’s resignation Tuesday, hours after authorities raided his official residence and the country’s attorney general confirmed he was being investigated under a corruption probe.

Rebelo de Sousa said parliament would be dissolved once lawmakers passed Portugal’s draft 2024 budget, which is expected to be approved at the end of the month, adding it was a necessary step in order to ensure the country’s “indispensable economic and social stability.”

“The approval of the budget will allow us to meet the expectations of many Portuguese people and to monitor the implementation of the recovery and resilience plan,” he said.

The decision to schedule elections for March was meant to give Costa’s Socialist Party, which controls an absolute majority of seats in the parliament, time to find a new leader before voters go to the polls, the president said.

Although the Portuguese Constitution gives the president of the Republic the right to appoint a new prime minister without holding new elections, Rebelo de Sousa said it was key to have a head of government whose legitimacy is not in doubt.

The president added Costa agreed to remain at his post as the country’s caretaker prime minister.

“I hope that time, sooner or later, will allow us to clarify what happened,” he said, adding that he hoped the course of justice would reaffirm the country’s good name and serving to reinforce its democratic values.