Portugal’s President today expressed confidence that the tension between the Government and the Constitutional Court will be overcome, adding that the Executive depends on the political confidence of Parliament.
"I think the problems will be overcome Portugal. I hope it does not have a political crisis, it would have a very, very high cost for Portuguese," said Cavaco Silva at a meeting at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
This is the first reaction we have had from the President of the Republic after the rejection by the Constitutional Court of cost cutting measures in the Executive’s 2014 Budget and the political impasse that followed with the Prime Minister criticising the Constitutional Court judges as being unelected and not up to scratch.
"It would be very good that all political parties maintain calm and common sense and we can go to work solving our problems," Cavaco Silva said today while refusing to comment on the judgment of the Constitutional Court late last week which kicked out the budgetary measures, "a President of the Republic shall not comment in public on court rulings, he respects and accepts them."
Cavaco Silva claims that he has received nothing yet from the Government to fill the +€600 million funding gap left by the Constitutional Court’s ruling.
Asked about the possibility that a political crisis would lead to the departure of the current government, Cavaco Silva reminded the press that the Executive is politically answerable to Parliament, and that "The President of the Republic will never interfere in the internal politics of parties," adding that in Portugal, unlike other EU countries, there is "a smaller appetite for dialogue and inter-party compromise" and accused some politicians of taking advantage of the current impasse.
"The government can only take measures when it knows the size of the problem," said PM Passos Coelho this week, referring to the need for other measures to plug the hole of more than €600 million created after the rejection of his cost saving measures, adding that "policy clarification should happen as fast as possible so that the government can overcome this problem."
Regarding Passos Coelho’s outspoken criticism of the judges, the PM said today that he does not want to do away with the Constitutional Court but does want to see better judges selected.
