The voting down of the state budget indicates a qualitative change in the political situation in Portugal. An early election next year will happen in a political context very different from that of the previous period. After six years of collaboration between the Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (BE) with the Socialist Party (PS) government, the “geringonça” (“contraption” - the name by which the unlikely deal struck between the three parties became known) is dead.

On 31 October, a mere 31.64 percent of Japanese voters turned out to vote in the election that would form a new government. Although the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is suffering from enormous unpopularity, the liberal opposition parties managed to lose rather than gain significantly from the situation. This result once again shows the Japanese masses see all parties as of the same, miserable status quo, one that is unravelling along with the crisis of capitalism.