Paulo Portas, leader of the ruling coalition’s junior partner addressed the country to say that he was against some of the measures announced by the prime minister last Friday.

Prime Minister Pedro Passo Coelho is to unveil details of planned structural reforms to slash state spending at 8pm on Friday. The measures must still be subject to negotiation with employer organisations and trade unions.

The Socialists are presenting this Wednesday a no-confidence motion against the PSD/CDS-PP coalition government which will not pass in parliament. The Socialist Party wants to renegotiate with Europe the terms of Portugal’s memorandum of understanding.

Along with the no-confidence motion, the Socialist Party will present proposals for the country’s troika of international lenders to revise its memorandum of understanding.

In a parliamentary debate, the leader of the main opposition party, António José Seguro, said the prime minister and his government are exhausted and its strategy has been a resounding and tremendous failure.

Portugal continues to comply with the bailout programme but the country is starting to face “austerity fatigue”, according to the IMF.

Friday, 8 January: Diário de Notícias reports that Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, is visiting Lisbon this Friday and defends a greater integration of eurozone countries, calling for caution on excessive austerity.

The prime minister sent out a hopeful message to the Portuguese on Christmas Day, but was greeted with little festive spirit by opposition parties.

The government says “Portugal is not Greece” but is alert to the “possibility” of discussing the principle of “equality of treatment”.