In 2015, Portugal’s euroskeptic Left Bloc and the Communist Party (PCP) agreed to support a government led by the pro-European Socialist Party (PS) on a platform to end austerity and reverse many of the measures imposed by the 2011 EU-IMF bailout. The coalition reversed pension and public-sector wage cuts, halted planned privatizations, and raised the minimum wage well above inflation. Almost three years into the government, the economy has bounced back and unemployment has dropped to less than half of its peak.

This success story has been repeated ad nauseam in press around the world: how a fractious left overcame its historical differences to reach a progressive agreement within the Eurozone’s tight constraints. At last, we are told, a left-wing government accomplished its anti-austerity program, offering hope to a European left still traumatized by Syriza’s spectacular failure in Greece.

The cherry on top: while the government was at first only critically tolerated by the European Union, it is now widely commended in Brussels for hitting, and even surpassing, its fiscal targets. Portuguese finance minister Mario Centeno has even been elected as the head of the Eurogroup.