Three new ministries are to be created, that of Culture, Equality and Citizenship, of Parliamentary Affairs - which was previously under the cabinet office - and of Administrative Modernisation. At the same time, the former Ministry of Regional Development now forms part of the brief of the cabinet office minister.
The eight new ministers proposed are: João Calvão da Silva for Internal Administration, Fernando Negrão for Justice, Miguel Morais Leitão for Economy, Fernando Leal da Costa for Health, Margarida Mano for Education and Science, Rui Melo Medeiros for Administrative Modernisation, Teresa Morais for Culture, Equality and Citizenship, and Carlos Costa Neves for Parliamentary Affairs. Three of these - Leitão, Leal da Costa and Morais - were already secretaries of state.
The announcement of the proposed team was greeted by the opposition Socialist Party as being that of a “provisional” government whose “days are numbered”.
“The presentation of this provisional government on the part of the coalition ... is a continuity of the past with no evolution,” said Socialist deputy Ana Catarina Mendes. “This is a proposal of a government closed in on itself, worn out and which is incapable of even interacting with Portuguese society. So it’s a government with no future and which is quite conscious of that very fact.”
The Socialists and two other left parties, which together make up a majority in parliament, have pledged to reject the proposed government in parliament.
Portugal’s president, Cavaco Silva, announced last Thursday that he was appointing Passos Coelho as prime minister, despite the fact that the centre-right coalition lacks a majority in parliament.