PORTUGAL: Social Democrat candidate Pedro Passos Coelho promises a new start for his impoverished country

Record ID: 791915

  • Title: PORTUGAL: Social Democrat candidate Pedro Passos Coelho promises a new start for his impoverished country
  • Date: 2nd June 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUPPORTER, SAYING: "He is different than the other politicians. He is honest, sincere, credible and represents a new hope for a change in our country. That is only possible with Pedro Passos Coelho." SUPPORTERS WALKING ALONG STREET LISBON, PORTUGAL (MAY 31, 2011) (REUTERS) SOCIOLOGIST ANDRE FREIRE AT LISBON'S UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE (ISCTE), WORKING AT HIS DESK COMPUTER SCREEN (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOCIOLOGIST ANDRE FREIRE AT LISBON'S UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE (ISCTE), SAYING: "What the polls indicate is that, one, he will lose perhaps one, two, three percentage points and he might win. Yes, they are sick of Socrates but, on the other hand, they are also asking: will it be better or worse to have the center-right with a more neoliberal approach than the IMF? So that is waiting on the voter's decisions." PASSOS COELHO WALKING AMONG SUPPORTERS WOMAN LOOKING FROM BALCONY/ PEOPLE CHANTING SLOGANS
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Portugal, Portugal
  • Country: Portugal
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABEKOZOYNVBH2N6XLK16DG9C9Z
  • Story Text: Portugal's leading candidate for premiership, Pedro Passos Coelho, is a politician-cum-business manager, whose executive skills and frugality may come handy to pursue tough austerity under an EU/IMF bailout programme.
    But the Social Democrat's lack of government experience, his discreet executive roles in little-known firms and swings from a political career to business and economics are used by his critics to suggest he lacks tangible experience in either field.
    His response is that UK's Tony Blair and David Cameron had not had government experience before becoming prime ministers.
    He says his business skills are a strength, saying that Portugal needs an austere, business-minded administration to ride out its crisis. Friends and foes alike speak of him as a tight-fisted type, and Passos Coelho admits that he does not like wasting money, be it in personal life or in business.
    "We know that we cannot fail. That's why I know, without any doubts, that Portuguese people don't want to get even with the past. Portuguese people want to look forward and take advantage of this election to build a strong government that can represent them," he said attacking his rival, caretaker Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates, who Passos says has left Portugal broke, going cap in hand to be rescued.
    The two are practically tied in opinion polls, with only a slight advantage for Passos Coelho's centre-right party.
    "All those who are supporting us have only one purpose: to give strength to a new government that will become real in these elections which will make Portugal a country with recognition, with jobs, with justice and with solidarity," he added, speaking at a lunch with supporters in the central city of Arganil, one of the stops of his marathon campaign, on Tuesday (May 31).
    Socrates, whose minority government collapsed in March after the Social Democrats rejected its latest austerity package, accuses Passos Coelho of having caused the political crisis that exacerbated Portugal's debt woes, "out of greed for power".
    The Social Democrat, who is often prone to long-winded speeches, replies to such statements saying that the country needs to be rescued.
    "We will not give up fighting for Portugal. And that is the strength of our electoral campaign for the election that will take place on Sunday," he said.
    Some analysts say he is too often on the defensive, rebuking criticism or explaining himself, but others say it underscores his image as a new and honest figure on the political scene.
    The problem, they say, is that Socrates, 53, is a fierce and experienced campaigner, who zeroes in on opponents' weaknesses or gaffes -- and Passos Coelho has shot himself in the foot recently on a few occasions.
    On one, he raised the possibility of a new referendum on abortion, which was legalised in 2007, and then had to explain he only wants to perfect the law. Analysts said raising the sensitive issue was wrong and unnecessary, especially since Passos Coelho has long claimed he is not a conservative.
    His supporters say they see a light of hope for the country in his candidacy.
    Passos started in politics at the age 14 in the youth movement of the Social Democrats and quickly rose through its ranks to become its leader. In 1991 he was elected to parliament, but later became municipal chamber deputy in Amadora near Lisbon, where he ran for mayor and lost.
    Passos Coelho's figure re-emerged from relative political obscurity in 2008 after he spent a few years as an executive at Fomentinvest, a holding company run by influential fellow Social Democrat Angelo Correia. He also lectured applied economics to future teachers at a higher education institution.
    He first ran, unsuccessfully, for his fragmented party's leadership on a ticket of renewal in 2008. He won the post last year, already after the party suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2009 general election that gave Socrates his second term.
    Some opinion polls have briefly given Passos Coelho's party over 45 percent of voting intentions, but it is now back to around 35 percent. Still, most analysts expect Passos Coelho to win and team up with third-placed rightist CDS-PP to form a majority government.
    Born to a country doctor's family in 1964, Passos Coelho spent most of his childhood in Angola before returning to Portugal. He has two daughters from the first marriage and one with his current wife -- a physiotherapist from Guinea Bissau.
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