Government and opposition square up over Portugal bailout
Socialists furious at PSD "hypocrisy" over offering to back outside assistance before election
Just a day after Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva called early elections for June 5, the interim Socialist government of Prime Minister José Sócrates and the main opposition party on Friday were at each other's throats over the need for a bailout to resolve the country's debt crisis.
The Socialists accused the leader of the Social Democrat Party (PSD), Pedro Passos Coelho, of "political hypocrisy" in offering to back the Socialists if it decides to seek external help, a solution the government has defiantly rejected.
It was the PSD's vote against austerity measures proposed by the government that caused them to be rejected by parliament and led Sócrates to tender his resignation on March 23.
The minister for parliamentary affairs, Jorge Lacao, claimed Passos Coelho favored asking the IMF for help, and was now trying to push the government into doing so.
The political sparring took place as Fitch cut Portugal's long-term rating three notches to just above junk status at BBB-, arguing that "timely external support is much less likely" because of the elections.
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