Catarina Martins, of the recently empowered Left Bloc, declared today that the "Passos Coelho and Paulo Portas government is over."
The Left Bloc leader met António Costa, leader of the Socialist Party, this morning in what he described as a "very interesting” meeting.
Shortly before 11:00 the party leaders arrived at the Left Bloc’s headquarters for scheduled talks to establish areas of cooperation that may prove decisive in defining the new government.
After the 90-minute meeting António Costa spoke to press on his way out and said there had been "possible areas of convergence between the two parties."
"We know that we are parties with different natures" but "what makes sense is to work for a solution for a government that is stable and that matches the popular will in changing policies,” added Costa.
The socialists and bloquistas have in common the goal of helping Portuguese families retain more of the income, particularly those lower down the economic scale.
"There are many ways to achieve this goal" said Costa who stopped short of making any formal announcement on cooperation between the two parties.
Catarina Martins told reporters that as for the Left Bloc, "for our part I am able to say that the Passos Coelho and Paulo Portas government is over."
The Left Bloc favours a government that "looks after people and families" and Catarina Martins said that she and Costa now have agreed a consensus on three basic conditions.
Whether the Left Bloc joins the Socialists in a new government or whether it agrees to support Costa when voting, remains to be seen.
These party head meetings are continuing and the Portugal’s president, Cavaco Silva, has until the end of Thursday to decide who will lead the country in the next legislature.
The coalition, despite ‘winning’ the general election on October 4th, does not have enough seats in parliament for a majority.
A PSD/CDS coalition proposal was sent to the Socialist Party at 15:50 this afternoon.
The ‘Document to facilitate a compromise between Portugal’s Coalition and Socialist Party for the governance of Portugal,’ will now be considered by Costa and his team before again meeting the coalition leaders whose spokesman said today that now it is up to Costa to propose the time of the next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, 13 October.
Last Friday’s meeting was a meeting about a meeting with no concrete proposals offered by Portas and Coelho.
As well as meeting the Left Bloc’s Catarina Martins today, Costa met the People-Animals-Nature party and also had a chat with the President, Cavaco Silva.
