The meetings are over and Pedro Passsos Coelho says that he will not be blackmailed by the socialist party leader and that there is no way he will govern alongside the socialists.
Passos Coelho said he refused to subject the country to "political blackmail" and it was the coalition which won the election, not the socialists.
The prime minister was speaking to journalists at the end of a meeting in Brussels and rejected the political role reversal proposed by the socialists, adding that he does not intend to have “any further meeting with the PS."
Passos Coelho has reached his diplomatic limits; "I've had two meetings with the PS and I do not intend to have any more meeting with the PS.”
The PM said that the socialists can present their proposals "at any time" and said that the ruling coalition party has "taken the necessary steps that were needed, with great humility, to search for the Socialist Party’s support," which has not happened.
"We said very clearly that we did not have an absolute majority in parliament and therefore we can not govern with our programme intact so we are ready to make concessions, but we need to know what the PS wants aso we can give the Portuguese people stability," said the Prime Minister.
Passos Coelho stressed that his door is always open to sensible proposals but he rejects overturning the election results and letting the socialists in to run the country.
Last night’s meeting between PS leader António Costa and Pedro Passos Coelho ended with nothing resolved and bad feelings continuing.
The PM said that the meeting had achieved "absolutely nothing" and that he had expected some proposals to mull over, which have yet to materialise.
But António Costa has a cunning plan, to try and end the long-running feud that has kept the socialist and the communist parties apart since 1975 and is committed to work a deal with the communist party to create an alternative government in Portugal.
The President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva, has until Thursday night to make some sense of this political mess which is not doing the country any good.
Silva was expecting the parties to meet and develop a way forward. They have met but seem as far apart as before the election.
