Has the left hit rock bottom in terms of international political power?

[Mike88]

While the left adds Austria (about to lose it), South Africa (led by a homophobic white genocider), Venezuela (in a civil war), Chile (about to lose it), Portugal and Greece (the most broke country in Europe).

The Portuguese government may be supported by leftwing parties, but it's policies and actions aren't very leftwing, on the contrary. The government has cut spending in levels not seen even in the Troika years and, in terms of economics, the only major policy was the increase of the minimum wage. All the rest, the PS/BE/CDU government hasn't touch in the former PSD/CDS government policies. There's a reason why the PSD and CDS are having a hard time in opposition... Costa is governing, basically, with their shopping list.

Also, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, is from the PSD (center-right).

[Mike88]

In 2017 they won in South Korea after an impeachment, add 2015 and you get wins in Canada and Portugal and that's it.

Correction: The 2015 Portuguese election was won by the PSD/CDS coalition, not the PS. The coalition won 39% of the vote, the PS won 32%, BE 10% and CDU 8%. What happened next was something that never occurred here. Passos Coelho even formed a 2nd administration but it collapsed because the PS made an agreement with BE and CDU to support a PS minority government. But the PS is making CDU/BE support stuff they would never imagine supporting like spending cuts on health, education, defense and other areas, all to reduce the deficit bellow 3%. And the government is continuing to hold a tight control on spending, which is creating tensions between the PS and BE/CDU.

Overall, i wouldn't put Portugal in a left section, i would put it in a more centrist section. António Costa is not leftwing or anything like it, he is just opportunistically leftwing right now to be in power.... In fact when he was minister for Internal affairs, (2005-2007), he was quite to the right of the PS and liked by many PSD politicians.

[Mike88]

In 2017 they won in South Korea after an impeachment, add 2015 and you get wins in Canada and Portugal and that's it.

Correction: The 2015 Portuguese election was won by the PSD/CDS coalition, not the PS. The coalition won 39% of the vote, the PS won 32%, BE 10% and CDU 8%. What happened next was something that never occurred here. Passos Coelho even formed a 2nd administration but it collapsed because the PS made an agreement with BE and CDU to support a PS minority government. But the PS is making CDU/BE support stuff they would never image supporting like spending cuts on health, education, defense and other areas, all to reduce the deficit bellow 3%. And the government is continuing to hold a tight control on spending, which is creating tensions between the PS and BE/CDU.

Overall, i wouldn't put Portugal in a left section, i would put it in a more centrist section. António Costa is not leftwing or anything like it, he is just opportunistically leftwing right now to be in power.... In fact when he was minister for Internal affairs, (2005-2007), he was quite to the right of the PS and liked by many PSD politicians.

Regardless of all that the centre-left & left still got more seats than the centre-right & right in 2015, so they won. We aren't talking about individual parties, but "the left".

True, although we can discuss the historical leanings of PS and CDU/BE and why this time they reached an agreement while in the past they refused, because at least in 5 occasions the PS could had reached an agreement with the leftwing parties, but that's another discussion not appropriate for this topic. But, the underlining is that although there is, indeed, a center-left/leftwing majority, they aren't persuing many left policies, on the contrary.