Portugal’s Socialist Get together (PS) selected Pedro Nuno Santos to guide the get together within the subsequent parliamentary elections following the resignation of Antonio Costa.
The previous infrastructure minister — backed primarily by the left wing of the progressive get together — received the PS election on Saturday towards Inside Minister Jose Luis Carneiro with 62 % of the vote.
On March 10, Nuno Santos, 46, will face Luis Montenegro of the center-right Social Democratic Get together (PSD) within the snap election referred to as after Costa’s resolution to resign following a corruption probe launched in November towards him and several other members of his administration.
Costa’s resignation additionally had repercussions in Brussels — the place the previous prime minister was thought-about a front-runner for one of many EU’s future prime jobs.
Most polls counsel a decent race between the PS and PSD, whereas the hard-right Chega get together might improve its possibilities of disrupting Portugal’s two-party system.
After his victory was introduced Saturday evening, the brand new Socialist candidate referred to as for get together unity forward of the following common election. “My accountability is to current an formidable and reformist venture,” he stated.
Nuno Santos is thought for his negotiating abilities — which helped the Socialists to kind a authorities with far-left events in 2015.
A 12 months in the past, he resigned as infrastructure minister after a scandal involving a big severance fee by the nationwide airline TAP, which fell underneath his remit.