I-MAG STS Corporation
Not favorably impressed with the solutions imposed on Greece and Ireland,
Portugal does not wish to become the latest of the seventeen Euro Zone
countries being bailed out. Of the more than ten million people in Portugal,
probably eight million are eligible to vote. They should.
President Anibal CAVACO SILVA (since March 2006) was reelected with 53%
of the vote (nearest rival 20%) two months ago. Jose SOCRATES Carvalho
Pinto de Sousa has been Prime Minister since March 2005. The unicameral
legislature, the Assembly of the Republic, has 230 seats. After the elections of
September 2009 (next election currently scheduled for 2013) the Socialist
Party held 97 seats; the Social Democratic Party had 81 seats; Democratic and
Social Center/Popular Party had 21 seats; The Left Bloc had 16 seats and the
Unitarian Democratic Coalition (includes Communist Party and the Greens)
had 15 seats. But all opposition parties have disagreed with the Socialist
government's new austerity measures. If the measures do not obtain legislative
approval we would expect the government to fall and early elections to be
called. Of interest will then be the cost of delaying economic action and what
alternatives the various parties and candidates propose.