Brussels, 15/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The three main political parties in Portugal began a week of negotiations on Monday 15 July to reach a “national unity” agreement, as demanded last week by the country's president, Anibal Cavaco Silva.
The Portuguese president asked the three parties that subscribed to the aid programme in May 2011 (the Socialist Party, PS, in power at the time; the Social-Democratic Party, PSD, the centre-right party of prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho; and the Conservative Party, CDS-PP, under Paulo Portas) to agree on a reform programme to be introduced as part of the aid programme and the timing of early elections in June 2014. The country's newspapers report that the PS will join a confidence vote later this week demanded by the far left opposition, and also a vote on a motion of no confidence. On Friday, the current government asked its lenders to postpone until after the summer break the eighth assessment of the reform process (see EUROPE 10887), which the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) immediately agreed to. The next two fact-finding missions by Portugal's lenders will take place at the end of August or beginning of September. (SP/transl.fl)