🇵🇹 Portugal's politics and elections 2.0

[Velasco]

Is the PPM running to retain the seat for Corvo?

[Velasco]

Azores election 2020: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa likely to call elections for 25 October.

In the next few days, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, will call regional elections in the Azores for October 25th, Negócios newspaper is reporting. This was the most acceptable date by all parties with the expection of the PS which wanted an earlier date due to the possible second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I infer the president of the Republic has the attributions to call regional elections in Portugal, not the head of the regional governments (I guess the same rules for Madeira, right?). It's renarkable

[Velasco]

Azores 2020 regional election timetable released:

Until 31 August: Final map of distribution of seats by island;
14 September: Final day to deliver party candidacies lists;
15 October: Final day to register for early voting;
18 October: Early voting day;
Between 11 and 23 October: Official campaign period;
24 October: Reflection day (campaign events and propaganda are forbidden);
25 October: Election day, polls open from 8am to 7pm;

I wasn't aware you have a "reflection day" too. Thought it was a Spanish anachronism, but I see we're not alone

[Velasco]

I missed completely the Azores election with the Chilean referendum and other affairs. My bad

What a strange result, let alone the PS underwhelming performance

I see that the PPM won a plurality in Corvo (in coalition with the CDS) and an additional seat in Flores. What's the reason for that upsurge?

[Velasco]

When you walk by the sea, sometimes you see pebbles in the sand with nice colours. So sad Andre Ventura is not able to appreciate the simple things

Ventura's face is more than priceless! I was literally laughing out loud. He was destroyed.

Ventura looks embarrassed, not sure if he was destroyed. His counterpart Santiago Abascal was utterly trashed in a recent debate in the Spanish Congress, but apparently the failure of the Vox's motion of no confidence had no impact in the polls. I guess this viral moment won't harm Ventura at all, because it's just an ephemeral thing. The underlying causes that contribute to the rise of the xenophobic far right remain

[Velasco]

Very interesting to see that they have a portrait of the candidate on the ballot! It'd be fascinating to see if there have been any studies done on what effect that might have--e.g., if candidates with conventionally attractive portraits do better than polling would indicate, or vice-versa, or if "standing out" marginally increases vote share.

Like, as the only woman in a ballot full of men and the only candidate who could reasonably be described as approaching hot, I'd have to think dos Santos Matias gets at least a bit of a boost.

She may look a bit manly, but Ana Gomes is a woman too

Well, there's the urban legend that Ana Gomes is just comedian Herman José disguised as a woman:
https://twitter.com/RONarciso06/status/1304224715792363521

"Approaching hot" is a rather sexist remark, as well as the urban legends about Ana Gomes

Said this, attractiveness is a factor that undeniably helps in boosting the popularity of someone (politicians included). But maybe atractiveness works better in TV, because pictures in ballots are neccessarily small. Also, and this is another sign of sexism and male perspective, you seem to forget that more than a half of voters are women. Presumably most of them are heterosexual, thus more sensible to the charles of male candidates looking like JFK or Barack Obama (to put a couple of examples of toung male attractive candidates). Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is not that type of candidate,  but surely he has other qualities that make him popular. For sure there has been never discussion on whether Rebelo is hot or not. This usually hapoens with female candidates

[Velasco]

Rest in peace Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho  the captain of April

[Velasco]

Rest in peace Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho  the captain of April

He was a very complex person and the reactions to his death were all very careful and weighted. Like I said in the post, he was very controversial, and in my view, he personifies the very best and the very worst of the revolution: the best because he planned the revolution and without his leadership and intervention it would probably failed, but at the same time his role after the revolution showed his naivety and lack of political ideology that led him to rather dark paths.

To be honest, my knowkedge of his figure is superficial. But I got he was key in the success of the revolution, as well a complex and controversial person. Revolutionaires are not neccessarily good politicians after the revolution succeeds, but probably they are neccessary at these critical moments of regime change

[Velasco]

Both PS and PSD leaders faced off in the only debate between them in this campaign. Rio started the debate by saying the PSD was a "civilized opposition" and helped the government during the pandemic, but pointed to the many failures of Costa as PM, from the economy to the NHS. Costa attacked Rio by saying that Mr Rio only thinks of numbers and of treating people's problems with lightness. Regarding election outcomes, Rio warned that if Costa fails to get a majority, he doesn't have anyone to talk to as, he said, Costa closed the doors to the left and right, and said that the PS would have a new leader, Pedro Nuno Santos, who could persue a PS-BE coalition government. Confronted with this, Costa was a bit vague and made his argument for an absolute majority, but said he's open to governing case by case or with the support of PAN. On the economy, Rio "trashed" the PS policies and accused Costa of putting Portugal on "the tail of Europe", highlighting that Portugal is being surpassed by former USSR countries. In his part, Costa promised tax cuts for families, while Rio continued to press on the bad economic record of the PS. On taxes, Costa accused Rio of not being trusted by people, while Rio accused Costa of having no plan at all.

Both also clashed on the minimum wage, with Costa accusing Rio of not wanting to raise the minimum wage, which was rejected by Rio. Costa proposed that the State should help businesses raise wages, but Rio rejected the policy accusing the PS of impoverishing the country. During the debate, Costa talked a lot about his 2022 draft budget, that was rejected, in which Rio joked that the 2022 PS budget is like the discovery of the path to India. On the NHS the differences was clear. To solve the problem of 1 million people without a family doctor, Rio proposed the creation of the "assistant doctor", in which patients would be treated in a private hospital until they have a doctor in the NHS. Costa trashed the policy and accused the PSD of wanting the middle class to pay for healthcare in which Rio responded by saying that 4 million people have private health insurance and that this is proof the system isn't working. On the Justice system, Costa accused Rio of trying to "control" judges with his policies, which was denied by Rio. The final topic was TAP airlines, with Costa defending the bailout and that the company is crucial for Portugal, while Rio said that the company charges ridiculous prices for air travels and that he will privatize the airline as fast as possible.

I envy Portugal for having a "civilized" centre-right opposition. Said this, I am personally interested in "the problem of 1 million people without a family doctor". Is it the NHS in so bad shape that it's unable to reach all the population? Are these 1 million people covered by private insurances, or rather they are poor and excluded from the system?

[Velasco]

The leadership of Costa is undisputed, regardless the PS gets a majority or comes close  to it

Is the PPM running?

[Velasco]

The leadership of Costa is undisputed, regardless the PS gets a majority or comes close  to it

Is the PPM running?

Just running alone in Madeira, and running in a coalition with PSD.CDS in the Azores.

The latter of which has lost and fairly badly in the famous island of Corvo. Alas.

Possibly that's because the island's teacher is not the candidate