On the evening of 16 December 2001, António Guterres accepted responsibility for the Socialist Party’s defeat in that day’s local elections, and resigned as Prime Minister. He did this in order to ‘escape the political swamp in which the country finds itself’.1 As a result, President Sampaio decided to call fresh elections, scheduling them for 17 March 2002. Given that it is common for governing parties to suffer electoral losses at the local level and to carry on with their mandate, what were the reasons for this decision? It is necessary to understand the political and economic circumstances surrounding the second Guterres term in order to begin to answer this question.

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• Political Science - Social Sciences