Govt vacuum after sacking

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 9

Govt vacuum after sacking

t ] NZPA-Reuter Lisbon 'i The Portuguese President [(General Antonio Ramalho , [Eanes) has consulted politijl cuns to try to form a new Government after dismissing j the six-month-old Adminis- ’ tration of the Socialist : Prime Minister, Mario Soares. Immediately after the solution of the Government, ; Di Soares clashed with the • Prcs'dency on the Con- ‘ stitutional interpretation of I what happens next. The Presidential announcement said the outgoing Government would stay in office until a new Prime Minister : lhcd been appointed. Dr ! Soares, however, said he I understood his Government ended its functions immediately. ! He said it was unthinkable that he should be called on to lead the next Cabinet. “When the President, using hr authority, told me I was

t exonerated, I felt like a bird who has found the cage door tjopen,” he told reporters. a] The Presidential statement -[made no mention of elecd tions, but said Constitutional Qprocesses would be ob--Iserved, which has previously

d meant consultation with the . r parties represented in Parliament. t Government spokesmen - have said it would take at I least five or six months to - prepare for elections, which ■ are not due until 1980. because of the need to hold a census of voters and pass a | new electoral law. The six-month-old Social- | ist-Conservative alliance collapsed on Tuesday when the | 41 Conservative deputies i | withdrew their support, | leaving Dr Soares’ 102 depu- | tics without a majority in I the 263-seat Parliament. ' Dr Soares said that in his I role as secretary-general of ; I the Socialist Party he would I head a delegation for talks I I with the President to seek I solutions to the crisis. I “From now on all initiatives ; arj the responsibility of the President,” he said The Presidential statement said General Eanes’ decision to dismiss Dr Soares was i

automatic after the withdrawal of the Conservatives. The Conservative Centre Democrats agreed to back the Socialists last January in exchange for three Cabinet posts and hopes of a more Centrist policy line. But angered at the slow return of land seized by Communists after the April. 1974, revolution and Socialist moves to introduce a national health scheme, the Conservatives demanded a Cabinet reshuffle, including the sacking of the Socialist Agriculture Minister (Dr Luis Saias). In an effort to bring pressure on Dr Soares, the Conservatives pulled out their three Cabinet Ministers last Monday.

But Dr Soares, the 53-year-old lawyer who survived 12 jail terms under a former Right-wing dictator. Antonio Salazar, refused to budge, saying he would stay Prime Minister until dismissed.