The Left Bloc has finished its negotiations with the Socialist Party and a left wing alliance now can go ahead as planned to force the Passos Coelho government from office next week.
The political committee of the Left Bloc has given the green light to a working agreement with the Socialist Party which marks the end of the often tense negotiations.
The Left Bloc had insisted on certain clauses including on the protection of jobs and rises in wages and pensions. These all have been incorporated in the new programme that will be launched after the forthcoming putsch.
The Communist Party’s leader, Jerónimo de Sousa, said late on Sunday that the terms of a "joint position" sent to the Socialist Party have been approved as he spoke of a "stable and lasting solution in view of the legislature."
This means that next week’s vote of ‘non confidence,’ designed to bring the government down, will put the future of the country’s leadership back in the hands of Portugal's president, Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
As the Socialist/Left Bloc alliance counts for a majority of seats in parliament, much as it pains him, the president is expected to appoint Socialist leader António Costa the next Prime Minister.
Catarina Martins, the Left Bloc leader, acknowledged on Sunday in Funchal that a leftist government in Portugal will be "difficult" and will be subject to "enormous pressure".
"We certainly will have enormous pressure from large international financial groups that have profited so much from the sale of our country on the cheap; we have gigantic pressures from the financial system and major economic groups that have enjoyed both the destruction of working conditions and life in Portugal," said Martins at a public session to outline the support of the Left Bloc in forming a government to be led by the Socialist Party.
Martins said her party was willing to work with the Socialist Party to recover income and pension levels and these initiatives have been agreed.
Of next week's killer 'no confidence' vote, the Left Bloc leader stressed that this is not a coup, just the simple functioning of democracy.
