New political crisis for Portugal “could be inevitable”
Portugal’s prime minister Luís Montenegro gave an address to the nation at the start of evening news bulletins, flanked by the various ministers of his government, to essentially challenge the opposition into either supporting his executive, and allowing it to continue working ‘for the good of the country’, or plunge Portugal once more into political crisis.
In a move that commentators quickly dubbed “risky”, the prime minister informed the country that he would be presenting a motion of confidence, unless political parties in parliament clarify that they believe the government has the conditions to continue executing its programme.
The pressure behind this choice of action comes from the recent weeks of ‘controversy’ and bad press over the PM’s family business that has been highlighted as a potential ‘conflict of interest’.
The PM said yesterday that he would be calling an extraordinary Council of Ministers today to discuss how best to handle the constant negative buzz through the media – and the result was that he is turning over the business to his sons (in other words, his wife is no longer involved) – but that is it. He is not winding the business up/ giving up clients, or anything else that various political parties have said should be happening.
In his short address, that allowed no questions from waiting journalists, Mr Montenegro reiterated that he works exclusively for the good of the country – outlining all the positives of the last few months of his minority government – and has always acted with integrity and within the law.
By admitting a motion of confidence, however, he effectively puts the future of his government on even thinner ice that it has been in the build up to this latest crisis, say pundits: PS Socialists have made it clear that they will not ‘support’ this government, Bernão Ferrão told SIC this evening, thus, logically, this suggests they would not support a motion of confidence – and as they are the largest party in opposition, all it would need are a few other votes from the smaller parties, and the government would ‘fall’.
And if this happens, the country will be on the way to new elections – in a year in which it already has two election campaigns on the horizon: municipal elections in the autumn, and presidential in the New Year – at a time when Europe generally is trying to focus on coming together in the face of extraordinary shifts in the global ‘order’.
Opposition parties will be responding to the prime minister’s announcement through the evening. Mr Montenegro has admitted that “a political crisis may be inevitable”.
The Resident will bring further updates tomorrow.
