Portugal seeks to renegotiate bailout program: PM

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said Suntoday that Portugal will ask the troika for a renegotiation of the financial assistance program. The announcement was made in Asuncion, Paraguay, at a press conference at the end of the Iberian-American Summit, according to news reaching here. According to the prime minister, the Memorandum of Understanding signed in March with the troika, namely the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission is "unrealistic". "The goal is to obtain more flexible solutions," said Coelho. The main difficulty that the Portuguese government faces is financing public companies. The bailout agreement stipulates that those companies should seek their capital needs in the market, but at this moment the situation is adverse for Portuguese state owned companies to raise funds. Meanwhile, the Portuguese opposition criticized the prime minister's announcement. The Socialist Party, the main opposition party, issued a statement that censored the fact that the prime minister chose to announce the new renegotiation out of the country. They also said that the government expressed the will to change the bailout program with no previous information to the parliament or to the other political parties.