Portugal's prime minister causes austerity plan to fail

Portugal's Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates has failed in implementing his planned austerity measures. The negotiations between his minority government and the conservative opposition party PSD ended without result on Wednesday. The fault lies squarely with the prime minister, complains Henrique Raposo in his blog A Tempo e a Desmodo for the weekly Expresso: "The socialists never did want to reach an agreement. At any time. And [opposition leader] Passos Coelho has learned his lesson in an extremely arduous way: you can't talk with José Sócrates. ... Passos Coelho and the PSD are essentially right. The socialists aren't ready to touch the fatted-calf aspects of the state. But for goodness' sakes, did we have to have all these negotiations just for Passos Coelho to understand that you can neither trust nor talk with this Socialist? ... It's not all that difficult to figure out, Dr. Passos Coelho: If the PSD were to abstain [in the budget vote], it would only moderately harm to the PSD ... but it would be terrible for the Socialists. ... And above all it would be the lesser evil for the country as a whole."

» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Economic Policy, » Portugal
All available articles from » Henrique Raposo

» To the complete press review of Thursday, October 28, 2010