Yesterday, the Portuguese Finance Minister left the
government. That was no big surprise, in the end, as many had expected that
decision for quite a bit of time.
But today we got the real surprise: the
Foreign Minister, Paulo Portas, who is also the leader of the junior party in
the coalition government, called it quits. The destabilising impact of his
decision is enormous. I do not expect the current government to survive such
blow.
Actually, Portas seems to have the same opinion. By quitting now he is
getting ready to come back in late September, in alliance with the Socialist
Party. So, he is playing for his political continuity.
The problem is that all
this has a very deep impact on Portugal’s access to the international financial
markets. Without proper access there will be no money to bridge the public
finances gap. That means plenty of hard times ahead. But in party politics that’s
not important. What is really critical is for the political leaders to have
access to power and everything that comes with it. They are no statesmen. They are,
like you and me, just trying to make a nice living out of bad politics and
the country’s ruin.
It’s a matter of choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment