Twice Prime Minister and former President of the Republic of Portugal, Mário Soares, stated in a Sunday paper and on the radio today that this is a government of "offenders" and that some of its members "must be tried, after leaving power."
Soares harshly criticised the Passos Coelho government, saying it is "dying" and the current President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva "does not say a word," and the government wants to "end the welfare state" and whose members “will fall long before June,” when it is predicted that Portugal will end its period of Troika assistance.
"How it is possible that the prime minister has not resigned after finding that he is booed everywhere, that no one takes him seriously ... and he continues clinging to power like a limpet?”
The former Head of State concluded that "these gentlemen have to be tried after leaving power."
Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978, from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th President of Portugal from 1986 to 1996. He was born in 1924 and retired in 1996, yet remains a thorn in the side of Passos Coelho, and the media can always rely on an outspoken series of quotes, many of them printable.
Communist attack
Passos Coelho and Paulo Portas are nothing but “crooks and jugglers” according to the general secretary of the PCP, Jerónimo de Sousa, because they both said, without blushing, that there would be no more austerity measures.
At a speech in Odivelas today, Jerónimo de Sousa said that both politicians play with words but really they are playing with people's lives.
"Crooks and jugglers is what they are," said the communist leader, who reminded his audience that the Prime Minister Passos Coelho, and Deputy Prime Minister, Paulo Portas said they had no new austerity measures, but "How can they say this without blushing with shame, when they are preparing to include in the state budget for 2014 a comprehensive set of austerity measures.”
