Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso has downplayed the crisis unleashed by the resignation of Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz, stressing that he stepped down for personal reasons, news reports said on Wednesday.
The government is going through ”difficult moments”, but it will ”face” them, the conservative premier said on Tuesday after Martins da Cruz announced his decision.
Martins da Cruz’s resignation follows that of Science and Higher Education Minister Pedro Lynce, who has been accused of arranging for the foreign minister’s daughter to enter university without meeting the required standard.
Lynce used a rule allowing diplomats’ children to enter university without passing entrance exams if they have completed their secondary studies abroad. But Martins da Cruz’s daughter had finished school in Portugal after the family returned from Spain, where her father had been ambassador.
Diplomat Alvaro de Mendonca is tipped to be Martins da Cruz’s successor.
Martins da Cruz’s resignation has been described as the biggest crisis faced by Durao Barroso since he became prime minister after ousting the Socialists in the March 2002 elections.
Socialist opposition leader Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues has accused Durao Barroso of being ”absent” and of not answering the questions raised by the crisis.
Martins da Cruz’s resignation has been seen as coming at a bad time, because the 56-year-old minister played a key role in the European Union negotiations on a future constitution. — Sapa-DPA