Lisbon treaty - No referendum in Portugal
José Socrates has broken yet another one of his electoral promises by denying the Portuguese the opportunity to conduct a referendum concerning the Lisbon treaty. According to the Prime Minister, the referendum isn’t necessary given that he only promised to consult the Portuguese regarding a European Constitution.
The decision is fruit of some internal and external pressures by various politicians that warned José Socrates that if the Lisbon treaty failed it would represent a big setback for Europe. This unfortunate outcome would be almost certain since most Portuguese would see this as an opportunity to express their disapproval of the governments overall performance.
It seems that nowadays democracy is only an empty word and something perfectly dispensable when the end results might not be the most desired. José Socrates on the other hand, a puppet with little backbone showed once again that he has no intention on delivering any of the electoral promises. We are all still anxiously awaiting the famous 150.000 new jobs.
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