Second ministerial resignation plunges Portugal into crisis

Portugal’s foreign minister Paulo Portas resigned, the president’s office said yesterday, in a further blow to the centre-right coalition that has kept the country’s international bailout on track.

Finance minister Vitor Gaspar, the architect of the spending cuts and tax hikes required by the bailout, resigned on Monday citing the growing erosion of public support for the programme.

Portas heads the rightist CDS-PP party and without its support, the government would lose its majority in parliament.