LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal’s cabinet has decided to go ahead with a motion of confidence in the centre-right government that is opposed by the main opposition parties, it said on Thursday, with a parliamentary vote expected to take place next Tuesday.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro proposed on Wednesday a confidence vote in his year-old minority government, risking his own dismissal and an early election – the country’s third in less than four years.
If lawmakers reject it, the government would fall and assume a caretaker role, pending a decision by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on whether to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections, which many analysts consider likely.
At the centre of the political crisis is a consultancy firm owned by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s family, which has made contracts with private companies that the opposition says have benefited the premier. Montenegro has denied any conflict of interest or ethical shortfalls.
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by David Latona)
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