Portugal Prime Minister Jose Socrates announces his resignation into a rectal examination scope.
President Cavaco Silva will begin meeting with political parties on Friday in an effort to fill the political vacuum following Socrates defeat in an austerity package vote and subsequent resignation.
Pretty much the Portugese economy is stuffed. Prime Minister Socrates was trying to put heavy cutbacks in place to stave off a total financial meltdown.
It seems the most likely outcome of the President’s talks will be a general election in May or June.
The indications are that Portugal is going to end up with Greece and Ireland in the economic basket case pile, with International help required to keep it going.
Mr Sócrates said the crisis could only be resolved by an election. Newswarped thinks the crisis will only be resoved by a huge injection of capital. Capital that is spent on wealth production not bloated institutions.
Announcing his resignation in a televised address on Wednesday night, Mr Sócrates warned that a financial rescue involving the International Monetary Fund would result in much harsher austerity measures than the programme he had proposed.
President Cavaco Silva is expected to sound out the possibility of forming a “grand alliance” of Portugal’s main political parties without dissolving parliament. It is unlikely that the conservatives are going to be happy with this. They will see the crisis as a good opportunity to end years of socailaist rule in Portugal.
One thing is for sure – that economic and political stability are a long way off at the moment. Strong leadership is needed to stave off economic disaster.
For years Portugal like many other Eurpean nations has tried to live like one of the rich countries without the economic strength to back it up.
