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Soares' Socialists and Sà Carneiro's Popular Democrats would seem to be natural coalition partners, since their platforms on such issues as nationalization and land reform are roughly parallel, and together they would command a comfortable majority. But the two party chiefs, who are personal rivals, attacked each other bitterly during the campaign, and Scares has insisted that he would rather remain outside government than join a coalition. On election night, Scares indicated that if he is forced to accept a coalition of "national salvation," he would prefer a broad front with all major parties to joining forces with Sà Carneiro alone. Sà Carneiro says that his followers would join any coalition except one that includes Communists. Indeed, he threatened last week to withdraw from the present sixth Provisional Government, which is due to remain in power until presidential elections are held in late June or early July, unless the Communists were immediately removed from their posts.
Fortunately, the politicians have time to work out their differences. Only after a new President is elected will a Premier be appointed and given the task of forming a government. For Portugal, which has weathered two coup attempts and countless other alarms since the 1974 revolution, a few more weeks of noisy political uncertainty will not hurt and may even prove salutary. At least, vacillation has never seemed a vice to President Francisco ("the Cork") da Costa Gomes, who has refused to take ideological sides during Portugal's prolonged political crisis and, not coincidentally, is a possible candidate to succeed himself. A recent Costa Gomes observation: "Portugal has often been on the brink of civil war, and it was only thanks to my indecision that the country was spared this tragedy."