Bailout austerity policies appeared to claim another victim today when the Portuguese finance minister, Vitor Gaspar, quit the bailed-out country's government .
The resignation was annouced by Portuguese president Anibal Cavaco Silva's office through the presidence website amid mounting pressure for the Lisbon government to ease its austerity policies.
Gaspar, an ECB economist with no previous involvement in the national political stage, will be replaced by secretary of state for the Treasury Maria Luis Albuquerque it was announced.
Neither the president's nor the prime minster's statements gave specific reasons for Vitor Gaspar's resignation.
Portugal received a €78bn bailout two years ago. The government is under fierce pressure from opposition parties, labour unions and business leaders to move away from the austerity policies adopted by Gaspar as Portugal is going through what is expected to be a third straight year of recession and its unemployment rate has soared to 17.6 percent and is forecast to exceed 18 percent next year.
Gaspar's insistence on tax hikes and public sector pay cuts had angered the junior partner in the center-right coalition government, the Popular Party, but Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho's Social Democratic Party, the senior alliance partner, had stood by him.
Despite the cuts Portugal has been unable to meet its twice-eased austerity targets, set largely by the so-called troika made up by the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
As a result, tensions have been heightened and as in the case of Greece and other bailed out countries, the terms of the bailout are part of the on-going political discussion..
Analysts though say that Gaspar's exit is unlikely to herald big policy changes as the austerity program is a requirement of the Troika.
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