LISBON: Doubts swirled in Portugal yesterday over whether a last-minute deal to promote a minister whose resignation sparked a government crisis would be enough to end fears over the country’s political stability.
Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho on Saturday said ex-foreign minister Paulo Portas, who had stepped down on Tuesday in protest at austerity measures in the bailed-out nation, would become deputy premier in a bid to hold the ruling coalition together.
Portas is also the leader of the junior partner in the coalition, the conservatives CDS-PP, whose fragile alliance with Coelho’s Social Democrats is key to the coalition’s survival.
Portas’ new job will be “coordinating economic policies and relations” with Portugal’s “troika” of creditors — the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, said Passos Coelho.
The re-assignment comes despite Portas having quit over a row over the tough economic policies imposed by the troika on the recession-hit country in exchange for a ¤78bn ($100bn) bailout.
Portuguese media was less than convinced by the reshuffle on Sunday.
“Does the new government deserve the Portuguese people’s trust?” asked the daily Publico.
“We can’t believe in any of the guarantees given,” sociologist Paquete de Oliveira wrote in the Diario de Noticias.
AFP
