Brussels, 08/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The new Portuguese finance minister, Maria Luis Albuquerque, will be in Brussels on Monday to reassure her colleagues about pursuit of Portugal's budget commitments as the government ends a week of political crisis.
After the sudden departure of Vitor Gaspar on 1 July and his immediate replacement by Maria Luis Albuquerque, the foreign minister, Paulo Portas, who leads the CDS-PP party in the coalition government, also resigned, thus jeopardising the coalition headed by Pedro Passos Coelho. After a week of horse-trading, agreement has now been reached, which will be confirmed on Monday by Portugal's president, Anibal Cavaco Silva.
The agreement reshuffles the cabinet, promoting Portas to the post of deputy prime minister and giving him responsibility for economic policy and for relations with the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund). Asked upon his arrival in Brussels about the problems in Portugal, the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that, just as for Greece, political stability is crucial for keeping the country on track and any instability would tend to slow down decisions.
Portugal is due new batches of aid (part of the €78 billion bailout agreed in May 2011) and a troika quarterly fact-finding mission is due to arrive in the country next week.
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said that Portugal looked prepared to keep up the momentum of its bailout programme. He said the finance ministers would miss Gaspar, but he had confidence in Albuquerque.
The Portuguese president is continuing consultations until Tuesday before making the agreement official. Portuguese media say the deal will greatly undermine the current prime minister's position. The opposition Socialist party is calling for early elections. (SP/transl.fl)