‘Passos reinforces CDS and dismantles super-ministries’

Published on 24 July 2013

President Anibal Cavaco Silva accepted, on July 23, the reform presented by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, two days after negotiations between the three major parties (PS, PSD and CDS-PP) broke down before reaching a compromise on “national salvation”.

Two years after his government took office, Passos Coelho has reformed his executive, ending the super-ministeries of economy and agriculture and creating a new ministry of the environment, territorial planning and energy. Rui Machete, an figure from PSD party (center-right), takes up the top spot in foreign affairs left vacant by Paulo Portas, who now assumes the role of deputy prime minister. At the same time, his party CDS-PP (right) strengths its position within the coalition, by getting the finance ministry into the hands of economist António Pires de Lima.

This renovation, says Público,

perhaps with too much pomp [...] suggests the opening of a new political and economic cycle and extends the horizon of governmental stability until 2015. [...] The inauguration of the ministers, today, is the first step to the zero hour of a government that, worn out, can no longer afford the luxury of more “tantrums” or failures.

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