Portugal's ruling centre-right wins austerity-test election

Portugal's ruling centre-right coalition won a general election Oct.4 seen as a referendum on its austerity policies, although it may not hold onto its absolute majority in parliament, near-complete results showed.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho's "Portugal Ahead" coalition was on 39.16 percent of the vote, according to results from more than three-quarters of constituencies, with the opposition Socialists of former Lisbon mayor Antonio Costa trailing by more than seven points.
 
Costa, who campaigned on a promise of easing some of the painful reforms imposed on western Europe's poorest country, was quick to concede defeat but ruled out stepping down as party leader.
 
"The Socialist Party did not achieve its stated objectives, and I take full political and personal responsibility," Costa told supporters in the capital.
 
But he added: "I will not be resigning."  

Oct.4 victory by the centre-right, despite four years of swinging austerity that sent unemployment and emigration soaring, marks a rare case of a bailed-out country re-electing its government.
 
The coalition between the prime minister's Social Democrats and the conservative Popular Party needs 116 seats to control the 230-seat chamber, with early indications pointing to it falling just short.
 
Passos Coelho campaigned on his record of having returned the country to fragile growth after one of the worst crises in its history, warning that the opposition Socialists could undo the progress.    

His triumph at the polling booth could signal a turning of the tide in Europe, with the austerity governments of eurozone Spain and Ireland about to face their electorates in the coming months.
 
"We have had very tough times...