Paulo Portas, leader of the junior coalition party CDS-PP, announced Thursday he will vote in favour of Portugal’s state budget for 2013 to avoid a political crisis, mitigating concerns of a potential break up in the coalition and of placing the budget at stake.

The CDS will vote on the budget considering that Portugal cannot afford to have a political crisis which would worsen, even further, the extremely sensitive economic and social situation,” Portas’s statement read, according to financial paper Diário Económico.

Portas, who serves as the coalition’s minister for foreign affairs, added that his party would contribute to “improve aspects of the budget until the conclusion of the process.”

The new budget has been met with stiff popular opposition from left to right because of its “huge” reliance on tax revenues, and sparked debates surrounding a possible “rupture” of the the centre-right coalition, formed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Popular Party (CDS-PP).

Talking at the sidelines of the European People’s Party Congress in Bucharest, Romania, Prime Minister Passos Coelho said he hoped the budget would “pass in parliament,” adding that it reflected the negotiations previously agreed with the “troika” in Portugal’s fifth regular review.

Portugal’s parliament will hold discussions on the government’s budget as a whole on 30 and 31 of October. And after the budget is discussed in parliament, the final vote will take place on 27 November.