O "Financial Times" vota Cavaco, obviously... e manda Soares às urtigas

Extractos do jornal de hoje:

If dancing could win votes, Mário Soares, the veteran socialist who steered Portugal from dictatorship to democracy, would waltz to victory in the country's presidential election on Sunday.

At 81, the former prime minister and president is still twirling delighted women round village squares as he rallies voters with impressive energy long after his campaigning days were thought to have ended.

But Portugal is in little mood for dancing. Polls indicate a clear majority of voters, dejected by economic stagnation and political instability, prefer the austere but respected figure of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the country's centre-right prime minister from 1985 to 1995.

Mr Cavaco Silva, 66, rose from a humble background to become a distinguished economist and crisply determined prime minister, often compared to the UK's Margaret Thatcher. Dismissed by opponents as a "technocrat", he lacks Mr Soares's common touch, often appearing awkward and aloof.

Mr Cavaco Silva's tough-minded focus on fiscal rigour and business competitiveness is finding greater favour with voters than the broader social values espoused by Mr Soares and Mr Alegre.

Peter Wise, o veterano jornalista do periódico que segue Portugal há muitos anos, parece estar de acordo com "analistas" que acham mesmo que Cavaco pode facilitar a vida a Sócrates:

Pressure from Mr Cavaco Silva to press ahead with difficult reforms, analysts argue, would make it easier for Mr Sócrates to face down criticism from the left against unpopular measures to cut the budget deficit.

E termina sentenciando:

Unless Mr Soares can achieve another spectacular comeback in a career marked by unexpected victories, he will bow out of public life as a man who, even into old age, so loved the dance of politics he would rather lose than sit out a challenge.