Government ousted in Portugal poll

Portugal’s Social Democrats unseated the Socialist government in an emphatic election victory, giving the centre-right party a strong mandate to enact a grinding austerity programme demanded in return for a €78bn international bail-out.

Though the severe debt-reduction measures are expected to pitch the country into deep recession and bring sharply lower living standards in what already is one of western Europe’s poorest countries, parties that support the effort to restore fiscal health collected around 80% of the vote.