Defying all odds, Portugal’s centre-left Socialists won an outright parliamentary majority in Sunday’s snap general election, securing a strong new mandate for Prime Minister Antonio Costa, a champion of balanced public accounts.

The result, boosted by a higher than expected turnout despite the coronavirus pandemic, comes as a surprise after the Socialists had lost most of their advantage in recent opinion polls, and means Portugal will have a stable government to oversee the application of EU pandemic recovery funds.

The vote was called in November after Costa’s hard-left former Communist and Left Bloc allies joined the right in striking down his