Lisbon, May 4. The president of Portugal, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, today receives the prime minister, the socialist António Costa, in the midst of the political crisis that keeps them facing each other and before addressing a message to the nation.
The Head of State will receive Costa this Thursday at his official residence, the Belém Palace, in a meeting in which he will inform him of what he plans to announce in a message to the nation scheduled for 8:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT), local media advance.
This meeting comes two days after the last face-to-face meeting between Rebelo de Sousa and Costa, as a result of the controversy over the state-owned airline TAP that has plagued the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba.
After that meeting, the prime minister announced that he did not accept Galamba’s resignation and the president published a note in which he stated that he did not agree with Costa’s decision.
Since then, the country has remained expectant about Rebelo de Sousa’s next step after almost two days of silence, in which the Government has tried to show signs of “normality”.
In Portugal, three possible scenarios are handled, depending on the powers that the Constitution grants to Rebelo de Sousa.
The president could maintain the current cohabitation and accept Costa’s decision or dissolve Parliament and call early elections, as he did just a year and a half ago after the Socialists failed to win support to approve the Budget.
The third option would be to dissolve the Government and order the formation of a new cabinet from Costa himself – who has an absolute majority – or even from another party, although the current composition of the chamber would make it unfeasible.
Costa has suffered a dozen casualties in his cabinet since he assumed his third legislature – the first with an absolute majority – thirteen months ago, which has strained the relationship with the president. EFE
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