“The PS has opened the door to the IMF [in order to] to avoid paying,” leads i, after Francisco Assis, the leader of the PS Group in parliament (the ruling party), officially sent out the call for external help. “An emergency situation calls for urgent solutions,” he said after Portuguese bankers announced they were no longer able to buy Portuguese public debt securities and called on the European Commission for a “bridge loan” of 15 billion euros before summer. The head of the Commission, Durão Barroso, however, recalled that Brussels had access only to “the European Financial Stability Mechanism, which also involved the IMF”. “If Portugal wants help, it will have to comply with these rules. The Commission shall not allow any à la carte solution for Portugal,” a diplomatic source in Brussels told Portuguese newspaper i, the Portuguese request is expected to arrive in Brussels before June. Meanwhile, rating agencies Fitch and Moody's continue their downgrade of the Portuguese banks.
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