Portugal is expected to launch trials of a four-day working week after a surprise landslide election victory for the governing Socialist Party in a snap general election on Sunday.

Prime minister António Costa’s, who has spent six years in charge of a minority government, pledged to consider the shorter week to “balance” working hours for “various sectors” of the economy.

Mr Costa’s SP confounded the vast majority of polls predicting another hung parliament by winning at least 117 seats out of 230 for an outright majority – giving him the power to push ahead with his policies.

Portugal would join a handful of governments around the world in holding official trials of the four-day week, including New Zealand and Iceland, while neighbouring Spain has also announced its intention to carry out a pilot programme.

Mr Costa promised on the campaign trail to explore a cut in the number of working days, saying trials would look at “ways of balancing working hours, including the consideration of a four-day week in various sectors”.

Opposition from business owners

The country has already approved legislation saying that companies with more than 10 members of staff can be fined for texting, phoning or emailing workers outside of office hours.

But the plans look set to be met with major opposition from Portuguese business owners, who say they are already struggling after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There is no point in discussing this change at a time when thousands of companies are in difficulty trying to survive the impact of the pandemic and rising costs of raw materials and energy,” said António Saraiva, head of Portugal’s CEP business confederation.

Mr Costa has also promised to raise Portugal’s minimum monthly salary by more than a quarter over the four years to reach €900 (£750), while unions that support his government are asking for the working week to be cut to 35 hours.

Mr Saraiva admitted that work-life balance was an “important issue”, but said that floating the idea of a four-day week in the current situation was unrealistic and would prove “divisive”.

Monday’s announcement that Portuguese unemployment had fallen below six per cent in December, its lowest level for 19 years, will also stoke fears among employers of wage inflation and scarcity of workers in some sectors.

João Vieira, president of the CCP association of commerce and service businesses, told CNN before the election that a four-day week would have “disastrous consequences in most sectors” in an economy dominated by small enterprises, many active in tourism and agriculture.

Reassure the business sector 

Portugal’s socialist governments have a history of progressive reforms, notably the 2001 move to decriminalise the possession of all drugs and focus on treating addiction, a move that has led to drops in drug-related deaths and crime. The PM at the time was António Guterres, now UN Secretary-General.

Mr Costa attempted to reassure the business sector and political opponents that he would not rule by diktat, despite having achieved only the second outright majority in the history of his party.

“An absolute majority does not mean absolute power; it’s not ruling alone, but rather a responsibility to rule for all Portuguese,” the 60-year-old former mayor of Lisbon said.

But with 42 per cent support at the polls, way ahead of the second-placed centre-Right Social Democratic Party on 28 per cent, Mr Costa will enjoy a clear path to decide on the allocation of €45 billion in EU Covid recovery funds, most of which is earmarked for infrastructure projects.

More good news came on Monday for Mr Costa, with GDP growth for 2021 at 4.9 per cent, higher than his own government’s prediction and above average for the eurozone.

The snap election was called by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa when Portugal’s parliament voted down Mr Costa’s 2022 budget proposal, after the prime minister had for once failed to bring his previous allies from the Left Bloc and Communist Party on board.

Both of those Left-wing forces were punished by voters on Sunday. Left Bloc suffered particularly badly, falling from 19 seats to six and finishing fifth after becoming Portugal’s third-largest force in the 2019 elections.

Surging into third place was far-Right anti-immigration party Chega with seven per cent of the vote, up from one per cent in 2019. Liberal Initiative, a libertarian party in favour of low taxes and individual freedom, also gained its best-ever result, winning eight seats compared with just one last time out.