Portugal ruling party vows to meet bailout goals after pact talks fail
LISBON |
(Reuters) - Portugal's ruling Social Democrats (PSD) said on Saturday
their coalition government would press on with meeting the country's
economic bailout goals after talks on a broader political deal sought by
the president collapsed.
Reigniting a three-week-old
political crisis, the two centre-right coalition parties and main
opposition Socialists broke off talks on Friday on a "national
salvation" pact to ensure an EU/IMF bailout stays on track, leaving it
to the president to decide how to proceed.
President
Anibal Cavaco Silva will make a televised statement on Sunday at 8:30
p.m. (1930 GMT), the president's office said. It would not provide any
details.
"We consider there are
conditions of stability and cohesion in the coalition, that there are
conditions for us to be able to fulfill the memorandum of understanding
and lay the basis for sustainable growth and conditions for greater
social justice," PSD vice-president Jorge Moreira da Silva told
reporters.
"We lament the result of
this dialogue process, but the Portuguese people know they can keep
counting on us," he said, adding that his party awaited the president's
evaluation "with serenity and confidence".
Political
turmoil has already forced Lisbon to request a delay in the eighth
review of the bailout by its creditors, originally scheduled to start
last Monday, until the end of August or early September.
The
78-billion-euro ($102.5-billion) bailout program and accompanying
austerity policies are associated with the worst recession in Portugal since the 1970s.
The
centre-left Socialists said the ruling coalition had rejected most of
their proposals aimed at ending the austerity policies and renegotiating
the terms of the bailout.
The government says abandoning austerity would undermine Lisbon's credibility with lenders and investors.
The
crisis, which started as an internal political rift in the ruling
coalition and expanded to a debate over the rescue plan and a possible
early election next year, has threatened to derail Portugal's planned
exit from the bailout and full return to debt markets in mid-2014.
Analysts
say the situation remains very uncertain but the president could still
avoid an escalation of the crisis, and a likely blowout in Portugal's
debt risk premiums, by keeping the ruling coalition in place rather than
using his power to dissolve parliament and call a snap election.
He last week declined to say what the alternatives were if there was no cross-party pact.
The
government easily defeated a parliamentary no-confidence motion on
Thursday and said this had confirmed its legitimacy to govern.
(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Sumber :
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/20/us-portugal-crisis-idUSBRE96J08X20130720
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar