Portuguese MPs force minority government to quit over austerity
Alliance of socialists and communists brings down centre-right coalition weeks after general election
Outgoing Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho leaves at the end of the debate. Photograph: Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
Outgoing Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho leaves at the end of the debate. Photograph: Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
A protest outside the Portuguese parliament building in Lisbon before the vote. Photograph: Joao Profirio/EPA
Angelique Chrisafis-Tuesday 10 November 2015
A surprise alliance of leftwing parties with a mission to “turn the page” on austerity has ousted Portugal’s centre-right government barely 11 days after it took power.
The moderate centre-left Socialist party forged an unprecedented alliance with the smaller Communist party and the radical Left Bloc, linked to Greece’s anti-austerity Syriza party, and used a parliamentary vote on policy to force the government to resign on Tuesday.
