FX.co ★ Portugal's government team: substitution and match penalty

The Portugal's government is going through the tide of resignations from key posts in national departments. Vitor Gaspar, the finance minister, abandoned his post a few days ago; so his term of office has hardly lasted for two years. After the Portugal's Constitutional Court had rejected the bailout plan of austerity measures developed by Vitor, the minister was forced to stand down. At present, the responsibility for negotiating with the lenders from the International Monetary Fund is to pass to Maria Luis de Albuquerque, the new finance minister; this will be the first challenge for the newly appointed minister. The debates on the this issue had scarcely died off, when two days later, the cabinet of Pedro Passos Coelho, the Prime minister, was shaking because of another notorious departure. This time the high post was abandoned by Paulo Portas, the Portuguese foreign minister, the party leader of the People's party, the Democratic and Social Centre, who is the main adherent of the ruling social democrats. Political analysts trace the direct link between the resignation of Paulo Portas and the appointment of the new finance minister. In Portas' opinion, the candidacy of Maria Luis de Albuquerque as a contender for a key position in the government should have been put forward for discussion, however it never happened.