“The programme has already ensured a broad reaching budgetary structural readjustment and the programme ensured a return to the financial markets far earlier than foreseen,” said Vítor Gaspar.

After a meeting with British Labour leader Ed Miliband, the secretary general of the Portuguese Socialist Party said it was not enough for the IMF to admit its mistakes, it also needed “to act”.

The prime minister said that two years after the general election the Portuguese are seen as “dutiful” and “honourable”.

The document that established the new normal working hours in the public sector said “the hours open to the public should tend to last eight hours a day covering periods in the morning and afternoon.”

The government was left without its most political minister, lost €1.3bn in the Constitutional Court, is going ahead with radical spending cuts and risks losing credit on the European front.

After the resignation of his colleague, Nuno Crato said he is convinced the university degree of outgoing Deputy Minister Miguel Relvas is not valid.

Minister of Finance Vítor Gaspar is on Tuesday afternoon to testify before the parliamentary committee set up to monitor the progress of the country’s eurozone bailout.

French construction company and highway operator Vinci trumped offers from competitors Flughafen Zürich, Fraport and Corporación América with a €3bn bid.

Friday, 9 November: According to newspaper Público, Brussels has warned Portugal that its external deficit is “unsustainable”, as it proves insufficient to lower the public debt accumulated abroad in the past decades.