Maria Luís Albuquerque, Portugal’s Finance Minister, is the hot favourite to become a European Commissioner.
Albuquerque’s name has been sent to Brussels and she is widely tipped to take up the post.
Sources with the Ministry of Finance admit that there are signs of change and Prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho has little option but to go with the flow, even though it means losing one of his most stalwart team members.
The PM will have to choose another Finance Minister at the crucial time of drawing up next year’s state budget, his pool of talent is not deep.
"Of all the names in the world, if Passos Coelho could choose one, it would be Maria Luís Albuquerque" according to an unnamed social democrat luminary, but Coelho leaves himself with a problem.
Portugal's PM has acknowledged his possible loss in a conversation with the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, but the hope is that Albuquerque would get a position in Brussels where she would command a major economic portfolio which may help resolve some of her home country's economic problems.
