"I think in the current context of national emergency, calling elections is not a solution for the problems Portugal is facing," said Cavaco Silva yesterday.
"I think the best solution is to keep the current government in power."
His remarks came after crisis talks between Portugal's three main parties failed Friday to reach a pact on pursuing radical reforms to avoid a second international bailout, as Cavaco Silva had called for.
"It is important to show our European partners that Portugal is a governable country," Cavaco Silva said.
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"The government has an undeniable majority."
The coalition between the two ruling parties gives the government a comfortable majority in parliament, but the alliance is at risk after the resignation early this month of finance minister Vitor Gaspar, the architect of the budget cuts, and foreign minister Paulo Portas, the CDS-PP leader and an increasingly sharp critic of austerity.
Bickering in the coalition and between the government and the main opposition Socialists, the third party at the failed crisis talks, has raised fears the government's bid to overhaul its finances will derail and force the country to seek a second bailout.
After the two key ministers' resignations, worries that Portugal would veer into a new crisis shook world markets fearful of a new wave of instability in the eurozone's debt-laden periphery.