You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Europe
Political Turmoil in Portugal Leads to Early Elections
2004-12-01
This is something that's going around, isn't it?
Reacting to four months of political and administrative turmoil for the conservative government, Portugal's president has decided to dissolve parliament and hold early elections... An election, previously scheduled for 2006, is now likely in February. The president's decision came after weeks of feuding within Mr. Santana Lopes's cabinet, public gaffes and organizational problems that had beset the conservative administration since it took office.

Recent opinion polls have put the main opposition Socialist Party far ahead of the Social Democratic Party, which heads a coalition government with the Popular Party. The Socialists have opposed the government's backing for U.S. policy in Iraq, where Portugal has about 120 police. If they won the election, the Socialists would likely withdraw that contingent.

Portugal could get its third prime minister in eight months if Mr. Santana Lopes isn't returned in the election. Mr. Sampaio rejected appeals from opposition parties for a general election when Mr. Barroso quit and allowed the Social Democrats to appoint Mr. Santana Lopes, who took up the post in July. However, Mr. Santana Lopes's term in office has been riddled with problems, and Mr. Sampaio reportedly was angered by the prime minister's handling of some state issues. The school year was delayed by weeks because the Education Ministry was late assigning teachers to schools; Finance Minister Antonio Bagao Felix publicly disagreed with Mr. Santana Lopes over tax cuts; and the government has also locked horns with the media for allegedly trying to muzzle its critics at newspapers and TV networks.

Mr. Santana Lopes had to reshuffle his cabinet last week after pressure over the performance of some members of his cabinet, but one of the reshuffled members quit Sunday, accusing Mr. Santana Lopes of "being disloyal and not speaking the truth." Socialist leader Jose Socrates described the past four months as "a disaster" and said he had asked former European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino to prepare the election campaign. The move comes at a difficult time for Portugal, which is struggling to find a way out of an economic recession that was the worst in the EU last year. The economy contracted by 1.3%. The election also threw into disarray the plans for a national referendum on the European Constitution. The government recently decided on what question to ask -- despite complaints from the Socialists that it was hard to understand -- and was intending to call a vote early next year.
Posted by:trailing wife

00:00