The Pedro Passos Coelho/Paulo Portas 'Portugal á Frente' coalition government today was voted out by a majority of left-wing MPs in parliament.
The rejection of the 20th Constitutional Government was approved with 123 votes in favour and 107 votes against and leaves the right-wing President with limited options as to who now will run the country.
The Socialist Party's rejection of the government’s economic plans for the next four years was fully supported by the left-wing parties and the single MP from PAN representing Nature and Animals.
Thus the government of Passos Coelho has been overthrown and the PSD / CDS-PP Executive now must resign.
The Socialist leader, António Costa, 54, is expected to be appointed prime minister in the coming weeks to front a leftwing coalition government, hoping to ease off on austerity while adhering to European Union and Troika rules.
“The taboo has ended, the wall has been broken,” said Costa on Tuesday after the vote. “This is a new political framework - the old majority cannot pretend to be what it stopped being.”
The key motion was a vote to reject further rigid austerity measures and centred on the assertion that the Passos Coelho coalition actually was working against people, not for them.
Pedro Passos Coelho said before this afternoon's vote that if the country left its path of economic reform and from meeting its eurozone commitments, this would be “ruinous for Portugal.” His increasingly indignant and bitter tone revealed his anger at being ousted despite the coalition gaining the largest percentage of the vote in October's general election.
The choice we have is clear: between the path of reforms that is gradual and secure, and the path of unrealistic political programmes,” adding that he “will not collaborate and will oppose any negative policy leading to Portugal's ruin."
Passos Coelho's speech was hardly worth making as the left-wing hoardes clearly were in no mood suddenly to back him but the outgoing PM determined to put on record his feelings at being pushed out after four challenging years. His Finance Minister gave a good speech, even in tone, but she failed to respond to the questions asked about Novo Banco and BES.
Maria Luis Albuquerque's flippant reply 'to ask the Socialist Party' comes at the end of a long period in office during which she has failed fully to answer many questions, especially those involving her past and a series of disastrous PPP contracts.
The left-leaning majority of MPs won the day in a carefully planned and executed attack that saw their various factions agree policy and coalesce under a broad left-wing banner.
The text of the Socialist Party motion read that the left-wing parties are ready to support a socialist government that is "stable, lasting, responsible and coherent" and supported by a parliamentary majority that would respect the country's international commitments and fiscal obligations.
The motion to bring down the government added that the current center-right policies are contrary to the interests of workers, the poor and the middle class and the government’s latest programme showed that nothing was going to change.
The 20th Constitutional Government has been voted down by 123 votes in favour and 107 votes against and the political football now passes to the President of the Republic of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, whose next step is being watched by the electorate with increasing concern, prone as he is to mess things as he follows his barely concealed right-wing agenda.
Cavaco Silva is due to meet Passos Coelho and Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, the parliamentary speaker, but has no prescribed deadline for making a decision and nominating the next Prime Minister - in fact he is off to Madeira for a few days which should give him time to think about his options which really are to allow an interim centre-right government to continue until an early general election, or allow the leftist alliance to rule, which seems the likelier option and one whcih may avoid a degree of civil unrest.
As for ‘what the papers say’ the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian reported that the Portuguese government fell due to revolt against the austerity measures.
Germany says the government fell after a no confidence vote, Greece says the fall of the government was brought about by leftist parties, Spain’s El Mundo said that the ‘left pushed out the government of Passos Coelho, the briefest in Portugal,’ ABC says "the left vote destroyed the Passos Coelho Government, and Le Figaro says ‘In Portugal, The Socialist Party and the radical left topple the government.’ All of which are spot on.
