LISBON – Portugal’s president has appointed Social Democrat leader Pedro Passos Coelho prime minister, with a new government expected to take office next week and start implementing a bailout programme.
Passos Coelho will form a majority coalition government with the rightist CDS-PP, a step that should end the political uncertainty created by Socialist prime minister Jose Socrates’s resignation in March.
The Social Democrats won 105 seats in a 230-seat parliament at the election to defeat the ruling Socialists. Their traditional ally, CDS-PP, won 24 seats. – (Reuters)