‘We
don’t want to be Greece’
Portuguese
MEPs comment on Sunday’s election, where polls put the ruling
center right ahead.
By CYNTHIA KROET AND
IVO OLIVEIRA 10/1/15, 5:06 PM CET Updated 10/2/15, 7:27 AM CET
Portugal’s general
election on Sunday will be heavily influenced by the austerity
program that underwrote the international bailout that the country
exited in 2014 and is still visible in its weak economy and high
unemployment.
Unlike Spain and
Greece, however, where this scenario gave rise to anti-austerity
movements, the Portuguese are likely to continue to support the two
parties that have governed since 2011 in a coalition which intends to
consolidate the budget discipline.
The incumbent prime
minister, Pedro Passos Coelho from the Social Democrats (PSD) —
which governs in partnership with the conservative Social and
Democratic Center-Popular Party (CDS-PP) — cites Greece’s
far-left Syriza government as an example of how not to resolve the
debt crisis.
“I think
Portuguese people see what they don’t want to be now. And
definitely they don’t want to be Greece,” said Carlos Coelho, an
MEP for the PSD.
António Costa, the
leader of the center-left opposition Socialists (PS), has also
distanced himself from Syriza — but accuses Passos Coelho of going
beyond the demands of Portugal’s international creditors in his
zeal for austerity.
According to opinion
polls, the ruling center-right coalition is set to win but will
probably fall short of a parliamentary majority.
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