Government Quits, Adding to Portugal’s Political Chaos

Portugal, already reeling from an alarming economic decline, plunged deeper into crisis Saturday when the conservative government quit a day after the president dissolved parliament and called an early general election.

The chaos is likely to translate into months of political paralysis that Portugal, one of the European Union’s poorest nations, can ill afford.

The crisis will further delay essential and long-deferred reforms devised to halt the nation’s economic slide.

Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes announced the government’s decision Saturday after an emergency Cabinet meeting.

It was a rebuke to Socialist President Jorge Sampaio, who said Friday that he was dissolving parliament and convening early elections Feb. 20.

Sampaio took that action after weeks of feuding among Cabinet members. A series of public gaffes and organizational foul-ups had beset Santana Lopes’ administration since it took office in July.

The school year was delayed by weeks because the Education Ministry was late assigning teachers to schools; the finance minister publicly disagreed with Santana Lopes over tax cuts; and the government locked horns with the media for allegedly trying to muzzle its critics at newspapers and television networks.

With Portugal facing the prospect of electing its third prime minister in eight months, a lack of political continuity is damping hopes for economic recovery.