Watched over by the president, the creditor governments of the EU, the ECB, the bond-rating agencies and the bond markets, the Left coalition took office. What it could do with political power, whether Portuguese democracy within the frame of the eurozone was more than a matter of extend-and-pretend, would depend on its ability to bend the constraints imposed upon it. At least, unlike Greece, the arithmetic of Portugal’s debts did not condemn it from the start.
