Portuguese PM denies encouraging youth to emigrate amid economic crisis

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho on Tuesday insisted that he had not told youth to "look abroad" and find opportunities elsewhere amid the country's worst economic recession in the past few decades.

Amid soaring unemployment and a deep economic recession, his comments in the past years regarding emigration have sent a wave of indignation across the country.

"Those who have the vocation of teaching either look for an alternative in the Portuguese-speaking language space or they experiment with other alternatives to be able to live with dignity. But that does not mean I am encouraging people to emigrate," he told journalists in Castelo Branco, 225 km north of capital Lisbon, according to Portuguese daily Diario Economico.

On Monday, Passos Coelho denied that he had encouraged Portuguese youth to find jobs abroad and said this claim was an "urban myth."

However, according to local media, Passos Coelho highlighted emigration as a solution to unemployment back in 2011, when he told young people to "leave their comfort zones."

Recent figures from the Portuguese Statistics Institute showed that the unemployment rate fell to 13 percent in April, from 14.6 percent in the same period last year.

Portugal signed a 78 billion euros (88 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program in 2011 with the troika of international lenders -- the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. Endit