The conservative government of Portugal's new Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has officially taken office, more than three weeks after the country's early parliamentary elections.
The trained lawyer and his 17 ministers took the oath of office on Tuesday evening in the Ajuda Palace in Lisbon before President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The first Cabinet meeting of the minority government that emerged from the vote on March 10 will take place on Wednesday. Montenegro called on the opposition to "let the new government work."
"We look to the future with hope," said the 51-year-old.
But there is a great deal of political uncertainty in Lisbon.
Montenegro will face his first test in just a week and a half when he presents his government programme to parliament. This will be debated and put to the vote on April 11 and 12. If the programme is rejected, the EU country faces the threat of political stalemate and another election.
Although the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) of Montenegro received the most votes on March 10, and narrowly defeated the Socialists (PS) who have been in power for over eight years, it fell well short of an absolute majority. The AD only has 80 of the 230 seats in the Assembleia da República.
André Ventura's right-wing populist party Chega (Enough is enough), which is denounced as racist by Montenegro and other critics, was considered to be the big winner of the election. It was able to more than quadruple its number of seats - from 12 to 50, making it the third strongest force behind the Socialists of previous prime minister António Costa.
Montenegro has ruled out co-operation with Chega. A "grand coalition" between the conservatives and Socialists was also thought impossible given what were seen as insurmountable policy differences.