Portugal is certainly going through a great deal of upheaval and heading for political crisis. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho held meetings recently with the leader of the rightist CDS-PP party.
The recent resignation of finance minister Vitor Graspar and foreign minister Paulo Portas have threatened the government’s majority in parliament.
The economy is at its worst point since the 1970s. Passos Coelho is now hoping to keep his coalition government in place by offering concessions to the CDS-PP. As Antonio Barroso, a London-based political analyst at the firm Teneo Intelligence said, “A negotiated solution in which Portas stays out of the government but the coalition survives would allow the CDS-PP leader to partially save face. However, the negotiations are likely to prove difficult.”
Antonio Saraiva told Reuters that, “The crisis has to be overcome in parliament, and we think the conditions for that to happen exist.” Saraiva has said, however, that the country needs more time to deal with its creditors in order to meet budget goals with the new bailout program.
The EU and the IMF plan to start their next review of the economy on July 15th. This may be delayed, however, at this point.
