In 2011, the then leader of the opposition party Pedro Passos Coelho, now Prime Minister, sent a letter which expressed his concern about the state of the country and supported the Troika financial aid package application made by José Sócrates.
In the letter dated 31 March 2011, Pedro Passos Coelho on behalf of the PSD made it clear his party would not object to "the use of external financing mechanisms" if the government decided this was the way forward.
The current Prime Minister has spent the intervening years complaining about the Troika intervention in Portugal’s economy despite having given it his blessing.
Catarina Martins, (pictured) leading light of the left bloc, said today the responsibility for calling in the Troika was that of the PS, PSD and CDS-PP, i.e. not her party.
Martins said she remembered well the support given to the Troika intervention by Passos Coelho’s PDS party.
"We remember not only the PSD asking for external intervention but also Eduardo Catroga, on behalf of the PSD, saying at the end of the negotiations that the memorandum had been "greatly influenced" by the PSD," she added.
Martins said that yet again Pedro Passos Coelho "has tried to rewrite history, but history can not be rewritten,” adding that the PM “likes to deny reality.”
Martins said that the country is more indebted than ever, the financial system remains at risk and the 2014 deficit is equal to the 2011 deficit despite the many sacrifices that the Portuguese public has been forced to endure over the past few years.
Another Left Bloc MP, Mariana Mortágua, said today that she had nothing but criticism at the way the current government has handled the sale of Novo Banco and that it is not possible to state with any certainty that the state will recover the money injected into the bank.
Mortágua said the government's plan was to create Novo Banco and then to sell it quickly to repay the €3.9 billion it had borrowed. However, the sale has failed and the failure is due to the process which was "wrong from the start."
"Novo Banco does not have the robust accounts that the Government and the Bank of Portugal said it had, it will need more capital and there are lawsuits that could add thousands of millions of euros of losses."
Mariana Mortágua said the main mistake of the government was to have said to the public that not one taxpayer will be asked to pay for a mistake made by a private bank.
The President of the Socialist Party, Carlos César said today that the controversy surrounding the bail-out request highlights the ‘fragility of the current coalition leaders' while dwelling on the distant past.
According to César, the deputy prime minister and leader of the CDS, Paulo Portas, has developed a "playful relationship with citizens based on a game of deception as he smiles when he tricks them, and he is always smiling.”
Pedro Passos Coelho is described by the socialist president as "a more serious case," as he is in "permanent conflict with the truth."
