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Portugal: President asks right to form government despite left majority

PORTUGAL’S LEFT reacted angrily yesterday after the president asked pro-austerity parties to form a minority
government.

The outgoing coalition of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the CDS People’s Party lost its parliamentary majority in the October 4 elections, being reduced to 107 seats out of 230.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s government became unpopular after it implemented an EU-dictated programme of savage austerity cuts in return for a €78 billion (£56bn) debt bailout.

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