CG: Just as an "oh by the way", there's a good chance the government of Portugal is going to collapse this week........
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Portugal's minority government will hand in its latest austerity measures to parliament on Monday with a vote expected on Wednesday that could topple Prime Minister Jose Socrates, exacerbating the country's debt crisis.
Parliament has its first scheduled plenary session this week on Wednesday and is unlikely to discuss and vote on the package before then.
The government will present the plan, first announced on March 11, to parliamentary leaders later on Monday.
Socrates has threatened to resign if the opposition maintains its refusal to back the austerity measures, prompting a crisis that his government says will most likely force Lisbon to have to seek foreign aid like Greece and Ireland.
The main opposition party, the center-right Social Democrats (PSD), have said they would not support the plan, withdrawing from the backing they had given to Socrates on cost-cutting earlier in the euro debt crisis.
"I'd say the government's fall is probable, though not inevitable, which shows there is very little room for negotiations," said political scientist Antonio Costa Pinto.
"And the worst thing is that the model of a grand coalition seems more and more unlikely after this fallout even for this period of the acute debt crisis," he added. The timing of the vote would depend on whether and when one of the opposition parties presents a resolution on the package in parliament.
But Publico daily said Socrates and his ruling Socialists were still hoping to obtain support for the measures before Thursday's start of a key European summit expected to approve a beefed up euro zone rescue fund.
The government needs opposition support to pass legislation as it rules without a majority in parliament.
The administration announced a series of extra spending cuts and tax changes on March 11, aimed at guaranteeing that the budget deficit is brought down to 4.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2011, as promised to Brussels, from around 7 percent last year.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
It will be replaced by a bunch of people who whined like ty babies about the tough medicine forced on the country, and who will then turn right around and continue the same policies after being swept into office by popular disapproval of the policies they will be forced to continue because it is the right thing whether or not the people of that country are smart enough to realize it.
At the risk of a massive run-on sentence, of course.
The guys name is Socrates? lol awesome.
It is a great name for a leader.
Nice job Portugal, you made Socrates quit!
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