THE former Socialist mayor of Lisbon, Mr Jorge Sampaio, will replace Dr Mario Soares (72) as president of Portugal after a strong election victory yesterday.
Mr Anibal Cavaco Silva, who has led Portugal as prime minister and leader of the Social Democrat Party for most of the past decade, suffered a humiliating defeat only months after his party was defeated in parliamentary elections. First projections, released illegally by a private TV channel, SIC, gave Mr Sampaio a majority of 59 per cent to Mr Cavaco Silva's 41 per cent, exceeding his supporters expectations.
The elections were not fought officially on party lines, but were seen by voters as a face off between the Social Democrat Party and the Socialists, who came to power in October after 10 years in opposition. Wild celebrations by Socialist supporters erupted in the streets of Lisbon soon after first figures were known.
The result has irrevocably altered - the Portuguese political landscape, with voters turning their backs on a style of leadership which they at first embraced enthusiastically, but then rejected as authoritarian and technocratic. The Social Democrat Party's future as a force in Portuguese politics is now seriously in doubt, and the party leader, Mr Fernando Nogueira, said soon after the provisional results were known that its national political commission would meet next weekend to analyse the situation.
Young voters had come to refer jeeringly to rule under the Social Democrats as "Cavacostan", comparing the party's world view to that of a backward Eastern European state.
The conservative right in Portugal is far from dead, however, and the vanquishing of Social Democrat influence has cleared the way for a more right wing party, the Christian Democrat Popular Party, led by a young turk lawyer, Mr Manuel Monteiro, to affirm its power.
The CDS-PP quadrupled its vote in October, winning nine per cent of the electorate and Mr Monteiro has now emerged from, the presidential campaign with great credibility, after resisting pressure from traditional right wing groups to back Mr Cavaco Silva. He instead urged his supporters to abstain, and it was this stand that contributed most surely to the former prime minister's resounding defeat.
The party is now likely to wage unremitting opposition to Mr Antonio Guterres's Socialist government, which is a minority government holding only 112 of 230 parliamentary seats, just as it earlier waged opposition to the Cavaco Silva government. It draws strong support from stylish young middle class voters.