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| Key minister quits as crisis grips Portugal coalition | Key minister quits as crisis grips Portugal coalition |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A key figure in Portugal's centre-right coalition, Foreign Minister Paulo Portas, has quit government just a day after the finance minister. | A key figure in Portugal's centre-right coalition, Foreign Minister Paulo Portas, has quit government just a day after the finance minister. |
| Mr Portas, head of the coalition's junior party, had been given the task of overseeing cuts after finance minister Vitor Gaspar quit on Monday. | |
| Mr Portas has in the past objected to plans to raise taxes on pensioners. | |
| Portugal is under pressure to make savings in return for its 78bn euro ($102bn; £67bn) bailout in 2011. | Portugal is under pressure to make savings in return for its 78bn euro ($102bn; £67bn) bailout in 2011. |
| The country has been in recession for two years and the economy is expected to contract by 2.3% this year. | |
| Last week a general strike brought public transport to a halt. | |
| Mr Portas has been odds in the past with Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho over aspects of the austerity drive. | |
| It was not immediately clear on Tuesday why he had resigned but local media reports suggest he objected to the prime minister's choice to replace Mr Gaspar. | |
| Maria Luis Albuquerque was picked as the new finance minister, replacing a man seen as the architect of austerity in Portugal. | |
| Mr Gaspar said in his resignation letter that he was leaving because of the growing erosion of public support for austerity measures. |