The Portuguese legislative election of 1979 took place on
December 2. The last election, three and a half years before, in April 1976, was won by the Socialist Party under the lead of
Mário Soares, who became the Prime-Minister of the 1st Constitutional government after the revolution. However, the government suffered several attacks and in December of 1977, Soares lost the voting of a confidence resolution because all the opposition, the Democratic Social Center, the Social Democrats and the Communists united in order to vote against it, and so, the Soares' government fell. Soares would become Prime-Minister again in January of 1978, in coalition with the Democratic Social Center, but in July this party would force the end of the government due to disagreements about agrarian reform. In August, Nobre da Costa became Prime-Minister by personal decision of the President of
President Ramalho Eanes, after a failed attempt to unite the parties on the Parliament. However, the program of Nobre da Costa's government was never approved and two months later, da Costa was replaced by
Mota Pinto who would govern with extreme difficulties for less than one year.
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