Portugal’s Socialist Party (PS) stands to gain from a sharp division in the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) which resulted in the election of a new party president by a narrow margin.

Fernando Nogueira, defence minister and prime minister Anibal Cavaco e Silva’s perennial “number two” was voted party leader on Sunday at the close of this weekend’s PSD congress, beating out foreign minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

A Monday editorial by the director of the Lisbon daily ‘Publico’, Vicente Jorge Silva, called Nogueira’s triumph “the victory of the conservative mentality of the party apparatus” over “the rebellious mentality represented by Durao Barroso.”

During the congress, the “social democratic” faction of the PSD, headed by Nogueira, butted heads with the “liberal” sector led by Durao Barroso, former leader of a tiny extreme left-wing party and now advocate of a centre-right line of thinking.

However, rather than providing the stage for an ideological debate, the congress unleashed a fierce fight for the party presidency.

According to the director of ‘Publico’, the fragility of Nogueira’s triumph was reflected not only in the narrow margin by which he was elected, but in his weak closing speech “which gave a politically outdated message.”

Referring to the 10 year period during which Cavaco e Silva governed with an absolute majority and led his party without internal dissent, Silva said that “Nogueira now holds a secondary role in a play that is over and done with.”

Thus, he added, Nogueira is “the adversary most hoped for by Antonio Guterres,” PS general secretary slated by polls to win the post of prime minister in this year’s October elections.

“Durao Barroso would have been a stronger rival, less predictable and more modern than Antonio Guterres,” Silva claimed.

In another editorial, the director of the daily ‘Diario de Noticias’, Mario de Bettencourt Resendes, also stated that the PS will benefit from Nogueira’s victory over Durao Barroso because the new PSD leader lacks both the charisma and the skill necessary to “broadcast a modern message, capable of recovering lost support and disappointed voters.”