European Commission president Durão Barroso may have praised Portugal for doing away with the troika’s last tranche, but Prime Minister Passos Coelho is already preparing the nation for more austerity, reaffirming the government’s intentions to find ways to increase revenue – in other words it may be forced to raise taxes to meet its financial obligations.
Both politicians spoke to journalists earlier this week following a meeting of the European Popular Party (EPP) in Albufeira, also attended by Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and EU Commissioner for Justice, and Paula Teixeira da Cruz, Portuguese Justice Minister.
“The government cannot exclude any kind of measure,” Passos Coelho said when questioned if the government would have to increase taxes to make up for the measures rejected by the Constitutional Court a couple of weeks ago.
“When measures to cut expenses are rejected, the government has no choice but to look for others to increase revenue,” he said, revealing that the government would be discussing its plans in the next Council of Ministers.
Despite Portugal’s difficulties to find “constitutional” measures to bolster its finances, the EC president continues to trust that the country will find its bearings as “it has the financial conditions to do so”.
Praising Portugal’s decision to ‘go it alone’, Durão Barroso stressed however that the country still needs to meet its financial obligations with the EC, but revealed the government has shown it is committed to doing so, “with or without a programme”.
