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Portuguese center-right minority gov't ousted in parliamentary vote

Xinhua, November 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal's left-wing opposition parties ousted the country's center-right minority government Tuesday in a parliamentary vote, less than two weeks after it was sworn in.

The main opposition Socialist Party (PS), the Left Boc and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) voted in Parliament for a motion rejecting the government's program, which has forced the center-right minority government led by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho to automatically resign after the Oct. 4 general election.

The motion rejecting the government's program was passed with 123 MPs from the alliance newly-formed by PS, Left Bloc, CPC, the Green Party and the People, Animal and Nature Party voting in favor.

The move has made the center-right minority government led by Passos Coelho the most short-lived since Portugal turned into democracy after a bloodless coup in 1974.

The PCP and Left Bloc announced that they had reached an agreement with the PS on forming an alternative government only days before the parliamentary voting on the government's program on Tuesday.

PS Secretary-General Antonio Costa has vowed to ease the harsh austerity with a reverse in pension cuts and tax increase and remain committed to euro.

The coalition led by Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader and Prime Minister Passos Coelho and CDS-PP leader Paulo Portas won most votes in the Oct. 4 election, gaining 107 seats in the 230-seat parliament, but lost an outright majority.

Portugal had been implementing harsh austerity in the past few years after it signed a 78-billion-euro bailout program with international lenders in May 2011. The austerity had sparked widespread protests throughout the country, which exited the bailout last year. Endit