The XXI Constitutional Government of Portugal ( pt, XXI Governo Constitucional de Portugal) was the 21st cabinet of the

Portuguese government , border = Central , image = , caption = , date = , state = Portuguese Republic , address = Official Residence of the Prime Minister Estrela, Lisbon , appointed = President ...

since the establishment of the current constitution. It was established on 26 November 2015 as a

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

(PS) minority government led by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

António Costa, and ended on 26 October 2019.

Background

After the 2015 legislative election had resulted in a

hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...

, the leader of the

Portugal Ahead The Portugal Ahead ( pt, Portugal à Frente, PàF) was a conservative political and electoral alliance in Portugal formed by the Social Democratic Party (PPD/PSD) and CDS – People's Party (CDS-PP). History The alliance was formed as the Po ...

alliance ( PPD/PSD. CDS–PP), then Prime Minister

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the 118th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 2015. He was the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) b ...

was given the task of forming a new government. However, as his minority government failed to secure support by any other party, notably the Socialist, the Government Programme was rejected by a vote of 123 to 107 deputies, leading to the government's disbandment within less than a month. In the meantime, Socialist Party secretary-general António Costa had succeeded in securing support for a Socialist minority government by the Left Bloc (BE), the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portu ...

(PCP) and the

Ecologist Party "The Greens" The Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( pt, Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes", , PEV) is a Portuguese eco-socialist political party. It is a member of the European Greens and a founding member of the European Federation of Green Parties. It was the ...

(PEV), in a

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of par ...

agreement. Subsequently, he was appointed as the new Prime Minister on 24 November 2015. The cabinet members took their oath of office on 26 November 2015.

Composition

References

{{Constitutional Governments of Portugal 2015 establishments in Portugal 2019 disestablishments in Portugal Cabinets established in 2015 Cabinets disestablished in 2019 Constitutional Governments of Portugal António Costa