In an abrupt change of plan, Portugal’s Prime Minister has decided that he can not do without his trusted Finance Minister and has sent a party suit to Brussels instead of the sainted Maria Luis Albuquerque to become the new European Commissioner for Portugal in Brussels.
Exit one Carlos Moedas who was until today close to invisible. He currently has the job title of Assistant Secretary of State of the Prime Minister, a role created almost with a single objective: to monitor the work of the Troika, a task that had ended since the completion of the adjustment programme.
The decision was taken last night by Passos Coelho, after again speaking with the newly elected President of the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker.
Despite wanting to appoint a woman, Juncker admitted to Passos Coelho that he needed a woman from Portugal as he had to appoint more women to meet a gender quota, he could not guarantee a top job in return.
As Juncker failed to offer Albuquerque a big enough brief to justify Passos Coelho letting her go, the PM released an administrator, almost unknown outside of the corridors of power, to represent Portugal's interests in Brussels.
Passos Coelho wanted Albuquerque to have a EC job related to the economy, the alternative to this, as discussed by the PM and Juncker, was to divide the Economic and Financial Affairs job, currently occupied by the Finn Jyrki Katainen.
The would have meant that Albuquerque would have got the Financial Affairs job which would guarantee her the vice-chairmanship of the committee.
However, Passos Coelho failed to get his protegée into this high profile slot, so sent in Moedas who no doubt will do a good job but in a lower profile role within the Brussels machine.
Carlos Moedas was one of the negotiators with the Troika, on the Portuguese side, and has worked for Goldman Sachs on mergers and acquisitions. Other jobs at largely anonymous companies include Eurohypo Investment Bank, Aguirre Newman, and Crimson Investment Management was followed by a post as coordinator of the economic sector of the research office of the PSD.
The Socialist leader of the opposition considers the choice of Moedas as a "missed opportunity for the country." António José Seguro disagrees with the choice of Moedas for commissioner, and was surprised at the choice.
Portugal had "the opportunity to choose a person with European prestige with political clout who would defend our national interests and who could contribute to the initiation of a new cycle of economic growth in Europe and employment," and none of this, regrets Seguro, was taken into account by the government when choosing the new commissioner.
