Portugal's parliament will vote on the government's latest austerity measures on Wednesday, setting the stage for a potential collapse of the minority Socialist administration a day before a European summit. Prime Minister Jose Socrates has threatened to resign if the opposition fails to approve the measures. The main opposition Social Democrats (PSD) are refusing to back them and have begun to talk about snap elections, complicating the country's efforts to avoid following Greece and Ireland in taking a bailout.
"Tomorrow the resolution on the measures will be voted," lawmaker Heloisa Apolonia of the Green Party said after a meeting of parliamentary leaders on Tuesday. "Tomorrow the plenary will give answers to the country."
The government had hoped to obtain support for its plan before a European Union summit gathers on Thursday to approve a beefed-up euro zone rescue fund.
Francisco Assis, parliament bench leader for the Socialists, said there was still time for a compromise, while failure to pass the measures would throw the country "into an abyss".
Socrates, who announced a deal on Tuesday with employers and some unions to cut redundancy pay in an effort to boost competitiveness, said: "Our country needs agreements, it needs understanding and it needs dialogue." He did not answer journalists' questions about Wednesday's vote.
So if the vote fails, Jose Socrates is done and so is Portugal's economy, meaning yet another nation will be at the Eurozone bailout trough and that the Greek Fire will have claimed yet another country. The new 700 billion euro bailout fund that EU ministers unveiled this week (and not a moment too soon) is going to get tapped out pretty quickly, and Portugal's expected to be the fund's first customer, perhaps as soon as this weekend.
Oh, and turmoil along the Mediterranean's southern coast isn't exactly helping Europe right now, either.
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