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Portugal's Left Bloc wins sixteen seats

The coordinator of Portugal’s Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc), Francisco Louçã, last night thanked the 550 thousand Portuguese who voted for the Bloco in yesterday’s parliamentary elections, thus ensuring that it would more than double its parliamentary representation. “Never before has a party achieved such an increase in percentage terms. The Left Bloc has shown…

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File:Francisco Louçã na VI Convenção Nacional do Bloco de Esquerda 02.jpg

The coordinator of Portugal’s Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc), Francisco Louçã, last night thanked the 550 thousand Portuguese who voted for the Bloco in yesterday’s parliamentary elections, thus ensuring that it would more than double its parliamentary representation. “Never before has a party achieved such an increase in percentage terms. The Left Bloc has shown that being a left alternative and fighting back can defeat the Socialist Party’s absolute majority.”

The Left Bloc will now be represented in parliament by 16 MPs.

13 responses to “Portugal's Left Bloc wins sixteen seats”

  1. jim jay Avatar
    jim jay

    You’re right the left did well (both groupings), although it’s worrying that overall the votes shifted to the right.

    We need to be able to shift society to the left I think. This is a good place from which to start that but we have to go beyond winning the disillusioned ex-labour voters and begin winning people who’ve not thought of themselves as on the left before.

    Not that I’m sure how to do that mind!

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  2. Liam Avatar
    Liam

    A good account is at

    Portuguese Elections Results: Good Score for the Left Bloc.

    And you can’t help but wonder what is the secret that the Bloc has discovered that remains such a mystery to the British left.

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  3. ks Avatar
    ks

    excellent results in portugal and germany for left forces then!

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  4. Raphie Avatar
    Raphie

    35 years of dictaorship, a revolution which had dual power, extreme poverty, humilty and open ness, mature innovative.

    Just some of the things going for the Bloc

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  5. Prinkipo Exile Avatar
    Prinkipo Exile

    The electoral system in Portugal is not very proportional. The Left Bloc got 110,000 more votes than the PCP/Green list but only one more seat (557,000/16 seats for Left Bloc, 446,000/15 seats for PCP/Greens) while the People’s Party won only 34,000 votes more than Left Block but got 5 more MPs (592,000 21 seats).

    In 2005 Left Bloc got 364,000 votes and 8 seats, and in 2002 149,000 votes and 3 seats. In all three elections the CP/Green list got roughly the same kind of vote and number of seats.

    This is a spectacular rise in support for a political party led by revolutionaries, and there is much to learn from the experience of the Left Bloc.

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  6. Andrew Coates Avatar
    Andrew Coates

    I was involved in the British campaign in Defence of the Portuguese Revolution during the 1970s (beginning with the Portuguese Workers Co-Ordinating Committee, which as is name suggests was run by Portuguese and helped by the T & G). Still have the run of Our Common Struggle if anyone’s interested..

    As such I’d say that a good starting point for an explanation of this result is that Portugal has a strong popular left tradition in a way we don’t have here. I notice here, for example, Portuguese migrant workers are already involved in UNITE (agricultural workers section) in East Anglia.

    Naturally that’s not the only factor…

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  7. Mark Victorystooge Avatar
    Mark Victorystooge

    I visited Portugal in the 1990s, a pretty conservative area in the north. Even so, the PCP presence was noticeable, and by chance I encountered a union protest against cuts in the square of the small town I was in.

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  8. Mark Victorystooge Avatar
    Mark Victorystooge

    Lots of places have a more popular left tradition than Britain. Portugal is just one of the more obvious ones.

    Austria, for example, has a sizable far right which is very visible, but even there, the Volkstimmefest, an annual left-wing fair held in Vienna, is something that probably could not occur in Britain.

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  9. Donkey Avatar
    Donkey

    What exactly do people mean by ‘popular left tadition’ ? and maybe they could they say a bit more about why they dont think there is much in evidence in Britiain because it is an interesting and important issue.

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  10. Mark Victorystooge Avatar
    Mark Victorystooge

    In the first place, it would be evidence of left organisation, without having to search hard for it. Re Portugal, I exited from a small railway station in the north, not a PCP stronghold, but there was a PCP poster attached to a lamppost advertising a rally. I went into a newsagent’s and bought a copy of the PCP weekly Avante. Then there was a anti-cuts rally going on in the small town’s square, which may or may not have been PCP-organised.
    Re Austria, a sizable chunk of an important Vienna park was given over to a left-wing festival over two days. Would any left group be capable of hiring out a sizable chunk of, say, Hyde Park for two days?

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  11. Mark Victorystooge Avatar
    Mark Victorystooge

    Although Italy has moved well to the right, I can also remember walking around Florence years ago and noticing how left-ish it was, in the less prosperous areas. Lots of hammers and sickles painted on walls. I attached a Soviet Army cap badge to my wooly hat (it was winter) and some people seeing it actually gave a clenched fist salute (although I encountered hostility as well).

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  12. Mark Victorystooge Avatar
    Mark Victorystooge

    Youtube of Livorno fans singing “Bandiera Rossa”.

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  13. Mark Victorystooge Avatar
    Mark Victorystooge

    This Youtube helps indicate some of the political differences between Portugal and Britain.

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