Portuguese Socialists gain ground in voter intention

Despite the political convulsions that have engulfed Portugal following the resignation of the government of José Sócrates on March 23, the interim prime minister's Socialist Party (PS) gained three points on its Social Democratic Party (PSD) rivals in the latest poll ahead of hastily convened elections on June 5.

According to the latest figures, if the elections were to be held now, the PS, which had been in power since 2005 but has governed with a minority presence in parliament since 2009, would find itself in a technical tie with the PSD, which would garner 34 percent of the vote.

The Christian Democrats of CDS-PP would form Portugal's third political power with 10 percent of the ballot, the Communist-Green CDU coalition would glean 9 percent and the Marxist BI bloc would register a significant drop with five percent of the vote.

Sócrates resigned with immediate effect on March 23 when a package of austerity measures designed to stave off the requirement for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union was rejected by parliament.

Earlier this week, the caretaker government sealed a deal with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan worth up to 78 billion euros.

However, the tough conditions attached to the bailout, which included tax hikes, spending cuts, lower unemployment benefits and a freeze on public sector wages and state pensions, will push the economy into a deep recession this year and the next, with GDP expected to shrink by 2 percent in both 2011 and 2012.