In the IPP Policy Brief 15: “Anti-Austerity and pro-EU? Strategies of the Portuguese Socialist Party to square the circle” the authors Catherine Moury and Pedro Pita Barros argue that the Costa I Socialista government (2015-2019) managed to combine responsiveness to voters with responsibility towards domestic and international actors by pursuing some kind of “austerity by stealth”, which the define as less visible fiscal contraction that is not displayed by the government in its public discourse.
This allowed the Costa I government to fulfill its electoral pledges and maintain the support of the radical left on the one hand, whilst reducing the country’s deficit and consequently of interest-debt repayments.