Portuguese Presidential Elections 2021

[The Larch]

Better score than last time i.e 52 %. More abstention this time, however, for obvious reasons.

Roughly the same amount of votes, though. Turnout was almost 10% higher in the previous ones, of course.

[Admiral Yi]

I was going to vote for Shopping in My Boxers even before I saw the pic of his 12 year olds groupies.

[Duque de Bragança]

Fun fact:

Marcelo did not use social networks for his limited campaign:



https://poligrafo.sapo.pt/fact-check/marcelo-e-o-unico-candidato-que-nao-utiliza-redes-sociais-na-campanha-para-as-presidenciais

[The Larch]

It's not as if he needed to campaign much, given the results.

[celedhring]

So the liberal candidate is the only one that campaigned through linkedin. Now that's real life confirming clichés.

[Grey Fox]

I voted for red tie guy. Usually in these things I end up picking the neo-nazi. This time is no different.

[Sheilbh]

Regarding party affiliations, even though Ana Gomes is nominally a Socialist (the government party at the moment), she ran a rogue campaign without the support of the party establishment, and was officially supported by two fringe left wing parties (an animal welfare one and an eco-socialist one) who didn't run candidates of their own.

Interesting crack in the Iberian exception for centre-left parties v the Greens in Europe

[The Larch]

Regarding party affiliations, even though Ana Gomes is nominally a Socialist (the government party at the moment), she ran a rogue campaign without the support of the party establishment, and was officially supported by two fringe left wing parties (an animal welfare one and an eco-socialist one) who didn't run candidates of their own.

Interesting crack in the Iberian exception for centre-left parties v the Greens in Europe

What do you mean?

[Sheilbh]

What do you mean?

In lots of Old Europe the Greens have been chipping away at the mainstream left/SocDem parties - or are in the polls for the next election where they may overtake them (possibly as the SocDems become ossified parties of older public sector workers v the Greens who represent the young, university educated left) to the point where they may replace them within the next few elections. The big exceptions seem to be Iberia (don't know why) plus Italy and the UK (both little bit sui generis? Plus broad centre-left coalitions within a party?).

It's a very broad brush theory - as with every idea I have: wide conclusions, limited evidence, utmost confidence

[Josquius]

What do you mean?

In lots of Old Europe the Greens have been chipping away at the mainstream left/SocDem parties - or are in the polls for the next election where they may overtake them (possibly as the SocDems become ossified parties of older public sector workers v the Greens who represent the young, university educated left) to the point where they may replace them within the next few elections. The big exceptions seem to be Iberia (don't know why) plus Italy and the UK (both little bit sui generis? Plus broad centre-left coalitions within a party?).

It's a very broad brush theory - as with every idea I have: wide conclusions, limited evidence, utmost confidence

FPTP is to blame in the UK. Most people are smart enough to realise they have to vote at least somewhat tactically.
That said the Greens were running in more seats than normal last time around, and in at least one local seat got enough of the vote to make the difference and flip it for the tories

Plus the UK Greens... They're not the greenest, delve into hippydom often. They oppose new rail lines which is just insanity and their established anti-nuclear stance is silly.

[Duque de Bragança]

Greens in Portugal (Os Verdes) used to be part of the Communist Party coalition, interestingly called CDU  (Coligação Democratic Unitária).

So non-communist Greens are still somewhat tainted. There are some even smaller green parties however, but not relevant for the PS combinazione/geringonça with BE (Left Bloc) and PCP (part of the above mentioned CDU).

[Syt]

Photo I took on Madeira 2008. Even the font is a bit similar.

[The Larch]

What do you mean?

In lots of Old Europe the Greens have been chipping away at the mainstream left/SocDem parties - or are in the polls for the next election where they may overtake them (possibly as the SocDems become ossified parties of older public sector workers v the Greens who represent the young, university educated left) to the point where they may replace them within the next few elections. The big exceptions seem to be Iberia (don't know why) plus Italy and the UK (both little bit sui generis? Plus broad centre-left coalitions within a party?).

It's a very broad brush theory - as with every idea I have: wide conclusions, limited evidence, utmost confidence

Ok, I see what you mean. Tbf, I don't think that any Green party will end up overtaking any SocDem, I'm not even aware of any country in which this is a real possibility (AFAIK it has only happened in some regional elections in Germany).

Re. why Green parties are not strong here, the situation in Spain was similar to the one in Portugal described by Duque. When Green parties started appearing in Europe in the 80s, the Spanish branch was highly regionalized and didn't really get any results, which promted splinter parties popping up around the country and its main party being swallowed by Izquierda Unida, which is basically a coalition of the communist party with many other smaller parties, which completely blocked its growth and further development, "Green" was basically just another of the many labels that IU attached to itself. More recently a new green party was created in 2011, with quite more support than usual, and ended up getting a few MPs in different coalitions (initially with Podemos, afterwards with a splinter), but it remains very institutionally weak and didn't get any MPs in the latest elections.

[Josquius]

Switzerland.
The greens caused a political crisis last election as they overtook one of the traditional big 4 parties.

[The Larch]

Switzerland.
The greens caused a political crisis last election as they overtook one of the traditional big 4 parties.

No idea about Swiss politics, had to take a look at wiki. It seems that the ones they overtook were the Christian Democrats rather than the Social Democrats, though. There seems to be a second smaller Green party of a liberal bent with not insignificant representation, though. That (center-right greens) is a bit of a divergence with other countries in which green politics seem entrenched as part of left wing politics.