Eurozone crosses Rubicon as Portugal's anti-euro Left banned from power

[LiberalArkie]

Portugal has entered dangerous political waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe’s monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding eurosceptic parties from taking office on the grounds of national interest.

Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.

He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets.

Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership.

Snip

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11949701/AEP-Eurozone-crosses-Rubicon-as-Portugals-anti-euro-Left-banned-from-power.html

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. We haven't done anything like that since The Communist Control Act of 1954.

[First Speaker]

2. Are they going to accept it? I would think there would be revolution...

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. Any government that nullifies a free election like that...

...deserves whatever it gets, revolution-wise. There may be no worse form of war than civil war...but after something like that, I'd certainly be giving it considerable thought.

[GliderGuider]

3. As the decline of civilization gathers momentum

We will see mounting evidence of authoritarian shifts in social and political behaviour. This is a prime example.
The current crop of American Republicans is another.

[jwirr]

8. A very scary trend. And I agree that the Rs over here are

a trend (since 1980) that has been using selfishness and fear to start cutting out the "useless" people from the system.

[uawchild]

5. Wait, they HAD an election and their constitutional president said NO to the results?

What's the point of elections then? Let me check something... Portugal is in the European Union... but is it also a NATO ally?

Why, yes it is. "Portugal was one of the founding members of NATO in 1949."

Ok..... So, please explain to me again what the purpose of NATO is? I was operating under the misconception that NATO was formed to militarily defend DEMOCRACY.

[tritsofme]

6. Wouldn't such a government be DOA in its first day?

I imagine they would lose a confidence vote essentially immediately, dooming the government from the start.

The EU seems to view itself as a post-democratic entity, pretty scary.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

7. Yes, but it doesn't stop the desperadoes from trying

Portugal left vows to topple government with no-confidence vote