Brussels, 31/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the prime minister of Portugal, Pedro Passos Coelho, won a vote of confidence before the Parliament of the country, despite the opposition of the Left, and went on, during the debate which followed, to reiterate his commitment to continuing the path of budgetary rigour, AFP reports.
“We will continue down the road of budgetary consolidation, financial discipline, rebalancing the books, confidence and credibility”, said Coelho, whose government was seriously called into question in early July in the wake of two resignations in short succession, although one of these, that of his coalition ally Paulo Portas, head of the CDS-PP party, was not accepted. It was not until 21 July that the country's president finally agreed to support the solution put forward by the prime minister, making Paulo Portas responsible for relations with the country's creditors. “We will continue with structural changes and increasing our competitiveness. We will follow the path of state reform”, Passos Coelho said on Tuesday, confirming his commitments to the troika of the European Commission, the IMF and the ECB, which has imposed austerity measures on the country since 2011. On this issue, the Commission announced on Wednesday that a new head of mission of the troika, John Berrigan, Director of DG ECFIN, would be taking over from Juergen Kroeger, who is retiring. (SP/transl.fl)