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Portugal's Left Block Party blames European Commission for Greece crisis

Xinhua, June 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal's Left Block Party blamed European governments and the European Commission for failing to reach an agreement with Greece on Monday.

"The issue today is solely if there is space for democracy in Europe, or if Europe is a place of financial dictatorship," said Catarina Martins, Left Block Party spokesperson, at a Autoeuropa factory in Palmela, around 50 km south of Lisbon.

"Irresponsibility was having over 60 percent youth unemployment in Greece, excluding 3 million people from the most basic healthcare. That was all done by the right-wing governments and by the Socialists in Greece, partners of Jean Claude Juncker," she added.

Martins' comments came as Greece tries to reach a new debt deal with its international creditors.

Martins also criticized Portugal for selling off state-owned companies as part of a bailout program it signed in 2011.

"The report by the Court of Auditors tells us that the sale of REN and EDP was sold off, in other words they were sold way below their market value, and in 15 years, those who bought EDP and REN will have kept the dividends of all their investment. So the state lost money, around 2 billion euros (2.24 billion U.S. dollars)," she said.

Portugal has long overshot its privatization target, selling stakes in airport operator ANA, power firms EDP and REN, postal service CTT and TAP Air Portugal among others. Endit