The 2011 Portuguese Election: Looking for a Way Out

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgement The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of the late Professor Peter Mair (1951–2011) to this election review article, both as Co-Editor of West European Politics and as the author's mentor at the European University Institute. Notes 1. For other recent reports in this elections in context series, see Allern (2010 Allern, Haugsgjerd Elin. 2010. ‘Survival of a Majority Coalition: The Norwegian Parliamentary Election of 14 September 2009’. West European Politics, 33(4): 904–12. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Dinas (2010 Dinas, Elias. 2010. ‘The Greek General Election of 2009: Pasok – The Third Generation’. West European Politics, 33(2): 389–98. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Faas (2010 Faas, Thorsten. 2010. ‘The German Federal Election of 2009: Sprouting Coalitions, Drooping Social Democrats’. West European Politics, 33(4): 894–903. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Lisi (2010 Lisi, Marco. 2010. ‘The Renewal of the Socialist Majority: The 2009 Legislative Elections’. West European Politics, 33(2): 381–8. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 2. Passos Coelho interviewed by Reuters, available at http://blogs.reuters.com/axel-bugge/. 3. The Christian Democrats (CDS) are often underestimated in pre-election polls. The 2011 elections were one of the rare examples of an overestimation for this party, a situation that enhanced the perception of defeat. 4. The turnout level might be influenced by outdated electoral records. The week before the election, a newspaper published a study suggesting that there were 700,000 ‘ghost-electors’, potentially decreasing the turnout by 7 per cent (Expresso, 26 May 2011).