Portugal’s centre-left Socialists, defying odds, won an overwhelming majority of the parliamentary seats in Sunday’s snap election. This gave them a powerful mandate to Prime Minister Antonio Costa (a champion for balanced public finances).

After the Socialists have lost most of the advantage in recent opinion polls and Portugal now has a stable government that will oversee the EU pandemic recovery funding, the result is surprising.

After Costa’s left-leaning former Communist and Left Bloc allies joined forces with the right to repeal his budget, the vote was called for November.

According to exit polls, the far-left parties were punished by losing over half of their seats.

Costa acknowledged last week that Portuguese didn’t want him to have a complete majority. He said he was open to forming alliances and parties with similar views, but this is not necessary anymore.

A majority of people doesn’t necessarily have absolute power. But it doesn’t mean you can govern all by yourself. “It’s an increase responsibility, and it means that we govern with and all Portuguese,” Costa stated in his victory speech.

Costa claimed that his party had won 117 to 118 seats in the 230 seat parliament. This was up from 108 in 2019. Costa’s supporters then erupted in loud celebrations singing “Grandola” as well as waving flags.

Costa was elected to office in 2015. He came into power after a debt crisis in 2011-14.

Portugal is still the poorest country in western Europe and continues to rely on EU funds for pandemic recovery.

Filipe Garcia, an economist and head of Informacao de Mercados Financeiros in Porto said that investors will likely value Costa’s strong mandate given the government’s recent record-breaking reductions to the budget deficit.

“Furthermore the Socialists won’t need to compromise with other parties, which ensures stability and a clear path of action. “The biggest challenge is to foster potential growth,” he stated.

According to preliminary results, the Social Democrats were a distant second, with less than 30% of the vote, as compared to 42% for the Socialists.

Far-right Chega was the third largest parliamentary force, jumping from one seat in previous legislative sessions to at least 11.

Portugal would benefit from a stable government to gain access to the 16.6-billion euro ($18.7 million) EU pandemic recovery aid package. It also will be able to channel funds in projects that boost its economic growth.

Covid-19 has been found to affect more than 10% of Portugal’s population. To combat this, government officials allowed people infected to go out and vote. They also donned protective clothing in the afternoon so that they could be re-elected.

The 2019 record-breaking 49% participation rate was beaten by the turnout.

Like in most European countries, the number of infections has risen, but hospitalizations and deaths have remained lower than before.