Left Bloc politician Luís Moreira drew up the petition and handed it over on Sunday to officials at the Presidential Palace in Belém, with the list of names contained on a USB pen drive, saying otherwise he would have needed to print out 400 pages.
The petition cites a series of articles from the Portuguese Constitution to support the removal of the Prime Minister from office.
Under Portuguese law, a petition has to be published in the Parliamentary Gazette (Diário da Assembleia) it should consist of at least 1,000 signatures, but needs to be discussed in Parliament should the number of signatories exceed 4,000.
But the President has opted against taking the matter any further.
In the President’s office response to the petition, Cavaco Silva’s aide said: “I confirm receipt of the documentation delivered on 15 March which was carefully surveyed. We hereby inform that his Excellency the President of the Republic, based on its content, decided to shelve the petition.”
Parliament, where Passos Coelho’s coalition government holds the majority, had earlier responded by arguing that since it has no constitutional powers to relieve the Prime Minister of his duties, it could not take the matter any further.
However, parliamentary officials decided that the document should be delivered to all parliamentary chief whips, with the justification that “should they support the initiative, their parties could present a motion of no confidence against the Government.”
The petition was drawn up in the wake of revelations that Passos Coelho had a number of debts with social security, but as the statute of limitations had been exceeded, he was no longer liable for their payment.
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister - whose legacy will undoubtedly include empowering tax collectors to go to new extremes in the collection of unpaid debts - defended his non-payment of taxes by arguing that he was “not perfect”.
Passos Coelho is said to have paid these debts as soon as he was made aware of them despite no longer being legally obliged to do so due to the statute of limitations.
However, Público newspaper claimed he only paid a debt of 2,880 euros, when the total amount outstanding is reportedly 5,016 euros. No penalties or interest were included in these payments, the daily said.
In response to the waves of criticism, Passos Coelho used a recent party conference to defend his actions or lack thereof: “I’m not a perfect citizen, I have my imperfections”, before he blamed revelations of his less-than-perfect tax history on a hidden political agenda, recalling that general elections are slated for this autumn.
“We have to prepare ourselves for everything. I would prefer if the fight was a political one, but our opponents have very little to offer”, Passos Coelho said.