NationStates Jolt Archive

The presidential elections in Portugal is on January 22nd. This sunday.
These are the candidates listed in order of their ideological background from left to right, with links to what wikipedia has to say on them.

First some background information... The incumbent president is http://www.portugalmania.com/images/personnages/sampaio1.jpgJorge Sampaio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Sampaio). Member of the Socialist Party [Party's ideology is social-democracy] and former mayor of Lisbon. He has served two consecutive 5 year terms and will not be running for re-election.
The current Prime Minister is http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Jsocrates.jpg José Sócrates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Socrates) leader of the Socialist Party. They have a majority of 121 seats out of 230 total seats.

Now here are the candidates for president.


http://maispresidenciais2006.impresa.pt/images/garcia_160x110.jpgGarcia Pereira (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garcia_Pereira) - 53 years old. Leader of the PCTP/MRPP. A portuguese Communist/Maoist party. His party does not have parlamentary representation.
http://maispresidenciais2006.impresa.pt/images/louca_160x110.jpgFrancisco Louçã (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Lou%C3%A7%C3%A3) - 49 years old. Leader of the Left Wing Bloc. A portuguese trotskyist party. In parlament, his party currently has 8 seats out 230 total seats.
http://maispresidenciais2006.impresa.pt/images/jeronimo_160x110.jpgJerónimo de Sousa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jer%C3%B3nimo_de_Sousa) - 58 years old. Leader of the Portuguese Comunist Party. In parlament, his party currently has 14 seats out 230 total seats.
http://maispresidenciais2006.impresa.pt/images/alegre_160x110.jpgManuel Alegre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Alegre) - 69 years old. Member of the Socialist Party.
http://maispresidenciais2006.impresa.pt/images/soares_160x110.jpgMário Soares (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Soares) - 81 years old. Member and founder of the Socialist Party. Former Prime Minister (served 4 years) and former President (served 10 years).
http://maispresidenciais2006.impresa.pt/images/cavaco_160x110.jpgCavaco Silva (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavaco_Silva) - 66 years old. Member of the Social Democrat Party. [Centre-right conservatives] Former Prime Minister (served 10 years).


Based on what you know about them, who would you vote for?

I'd vote for the one on the bottom. He looks vaguely like the cosmetically enhanced corpses at funeral parlors. It's cool to have an undead zombie for president.

Weird how there are absolutely no conservative candidates running, ain't it?

Conservatives as in the american definition of conservative meaning a right leaning republican... it's not strange at all that nobody like that is running. American style conservatives aren't very common outside of the US.

Conservatives as in the american definition of conservative meaning a right leaning republican... it's not strange at all that nobody like that is running. American style conservatives aren't very common outside of the US.
Yeah, but these guys seem to make the Democrat party (USA) seem like Benito Mussolini's fascist party.

No not at all. A Democrat in Portugal would be centre and slightly right. To left of the Cavaco. Most of these candidates are just tag along protest candidates and not really seriously considered. In my opinion the real candidates are Alegre, Soares and Cavaco.

Yeah, but these guys seem to make the Democrat party (USA) seem like Benito Mussolini's fascist party.

well, having only gotten rid of their fascist rulers in like '74 will do that to a place.

One can construe the argument that there are really no Right Wing candidates, has even Cavaco has consistently shown positions that would put him in the left. It is estimated that a third of his votes will come from the left, so that is not so unreal.

He will win, the question is for how much votes. More importantly, the center of politics in our country has been pulled leftward, something that will mark these elections alot.

I'd like to see either Louça win (who would demand the legalization.. of everything), or Alegre, that would likely declare war on Spain because of an old disputed village we have with that country :p

I share Louçã's social progressivism allthough I do so for different reasons. There will be a time for Portugal sometime in the future to have those priorities. I don't honestly think that Portugal is ready for certain things. There was a time when we weren't ready for democracy in the early 19 hundreds.

Bump.

bump