Portuguese election could spell more political discord

The political differences between the Portuguese president, Aníbal Cavaco Silva (conservative), and the Socialist government of José Sócrates, will deepen from Sunday onward, if, as the polls suggest, the head of state is reelected in the presidential elections with more than 50 percent of the vote, making a second round of voting unnecessary.

A second mandate would put the difficult coexistence of the two powers to the test ? all in a context of severe economic crisis. The aggressive nature of some of the messages heard during the campaign between Cavaco and the Socialist candidate, Manuel Alegre, suggest even greater confrontation is to come.

In all of his speeches, Cavaco reiterates the fact that the situation is "serious and worrying," and, conscious that the Sócrates government has been weakened by the crisis and the lack of a parliamentary majority, has warned of the risk that the country could enter into a serious political crisis after the elections.

The response from the government was rapid and blunt: Augusto Santos Silva, the defense minister, used his sharpened tongue to say that Cavaco "should not stick his nose in where it's not wanted," nor should he "set out the path of public policies."

In Portugal, the president oversees laws approved by parliament as well as government decrees, and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Cavaco has vetoed a number of draft laws pushed by the Socialist government, including ones relating to divorce, gender equality and civil partnerships.

"The president does not have the power to do everything, but he does have sufficient powers to ruin everything," said one speaker at an election rally this week in Coimbra. The irony of his statement was lost on no one.