CONCERNS HAVE been raised that the appointment of José Socrates, Portugal’s Prime Minister, as the new President of the European Council will jeopardise Portugal’s internal affairs.
Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã and research company Aximage organised a survey to gauge public opinion on the matter.
It was found that 41.8 per cent of the people interviewed believed that the six month period that José Socrates will be presiding over the European Council, from July 1, will negatively affect Portugal’s internal affairs.
New role
Only 34.7 per cent of those asked believed that the task would not affect the work of José Socrates’ government team.
In another survey, of Socialist Party voters, 44.7 per cent agreed that the Prime Minister’s new role would negatively affect his work, compared with only 31,6 per cent who believed there would be no negative effect.
In contrast to this, the Portuguese population remains optimistic as to José Socrates’ performance in the European Council Presidency.
They are not expecting big advances on European issues during this Presidency, with 29.1 percent thinking it will be okay and 11.6 per cent being convinced things will go wrong for the Portuguese team.
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