(12 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lisbon, Portugal – 12 March 2025
1. Various of boat crossing River Tagus
2. Lisbon tram
3. Various of newspapers with headline reading (Portuguese) “Montenegro loses the confidence of the Portuguese”
4. Various of commuters
5. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Francisco Ribeiro, plumber:
“I have a feeling that this idea of having early elections is becoming common and people start to think it is normal. But it is not normal. And another thing that affects people is that politicians appear to be less and less honest and this confuses people, it holds up their lives. They start thinking longer about the decisions they need to make, and this is complicated for the country.”
6. Commuters
7. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Fabio Traquinas, bartender:
“I think that if it’s necessary, if the government is not doing what it should, if Montenegero is being accused of corruption I think ideally we shouldn’t have somebody who is corrupt leading the country but I know it is difficult for that to happen in politics.”
8. People passing
9. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Ilidio Rocha, military officer:
“I think honestly that this is opportunism from the opposition parties towards the government. In my view this government has done more in one year than the previous one in eight years, with very favourable measures for the Portuguese, for example in terms of salaries.”
10. People crossing road
11. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Carina Semedo, admin worker:
“What I have to say is that young people should start voting more. That’s all I have to say. We are letting the older people vote and it’s always the same people winning, so we need to vote to see if we can change our future.”
12. People sitting by the river
13. Wide of river
STORYLINE:
The morning after a government collapse has brought uncertainty to Portuguese people on their way to work.
Portugal’s minority government lost a confidence vote in parliament Tuesday, forcing its resignation and bringing likely the European Union country’s third general election in three years.
On Wednesday morning some Lisbon residents expressed mixed emotions and concerns over what lies ahead – the most likely scenario being another snap election, the third in three years.
“I have a feeling that this idea of having early elections is becoming common and people start to think it is normal," said plumber Francisco Ribeiro.
"But it is not normal."
The government, a two-party alliance led by the Social Democratic Party and in power for less than a year, had just 80 seats in the current 230-seat legislature.
An overwhelming majority of opposition lawmakers had vowed to vote against it.
A new election, likely in May, pitches the country of 10.6 million people into months of political uncertainty just as it is in the process of investing more than 22 billion euros ($24 billion) in EU development funds.
The continent, meanwhile, is facing challenges to its security and economy.
The government asked for the confidence vote, saying it was needed to “dispel uncertainty” about its own future amid a simmering political crisis that has focused on Social Democrat Prime Minister Luis Montenegro and distracted attention from government policy.
The controversy has revolved around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of Montenegro’s family law firm.
It recently emerged that the firm is receiving monthly payments from a company that has a major gambling concession granted by the government, among other sources of revenue.
It has been in power for less than a year.
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