According to Santos, who serves as the government's main political negotiator, there have been about 350 meetings with the leftists since the administration took power in November. That translates into about three meetings every working day, many of them attended by government ministers. [...]
Given the rivalries, the alliance was widely predicted to stumble at the first hurdle - the 2016 budget. But so far it has managed to stick to strict budget goals agreed with Brussels, while delivering on some promises of rolling back austerity by reducing cuts to civil servant salaries and pensions.
There are still fundamental disagreements. The Left Bloc and Communists remain staunchly anti-austerity and insist that creditors must write off Portugal's debt. The Socialists insisted in their initial pact that commitments to Europe must be maintained.
Still, six months in, even opponents accept that the system is not necessarily headed for collapse.
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