Recollections: José Pearce de Azevedo

For 35 years the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office was able to rely on the complete discretion of their man in the Algarve, the charismatic Dr José Manuel Teixeira Gomes Pearce de Azevedo, OBE. Ten years after his retirement and now aged 80, he has agreed to tell for the first time some of his hitherto confidential experiences.

What he has revealed here is unlikely to alarm Whitehall or be the envy of WikiLeaks, but nonetheless it is a fascinating and often amusing insight into the work of a man who was long the doyen of the Algarve consular corps. As such he rubbed shoulders with members of the British royal family, leading politicians and assorted celebrities – as well as ordinary law-abiding expats and serious villains.

The ever gregarious and convivial 'Joe', as he has always been known to close friends and colleagues, had the advantage of a pedigree that made him eminently suitable for the job of representing Great Britain here. He is the grandson of Portmão-born Manuel Teixeira Gomes, who served for thirteen years as Portugal's Ambassador to London. As Portugal's first envoy in the UK after the abolition of the monarchy in this country, he presented his credentials to King George V in 1911. Teixeira Gomes went on to become the seventh President of the Republic from 1923 to 1925. (The picture here  shows Joe with a photograph of his grandfather in the Portimão Museum).

Both Joe's father and paternal grandfather had served as vice-consuls in the Algarve. He followed in their footsteps by being appointed vice-consul in 1965 at the age of 35. In 1974 he became full honorary consul. His wife, Zefita (pictured below with an orphaned child), officially joined him as pro-consul in 1983 and they served together in the consulate in Portimão until their retirement in 2000.

They were at the British Embassy in Lisbon together during a state visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II when the monarch left a crowded room to visit another part of the Embassy building. Joe recalled how Prince Philip then entered the room, glanced around and caused great mirth among diplomatic staff by asking in a loud voice: “Has anyone seen my wife? Where is she?”

At another official function in the Embassy, the Prince of Wales and Princess of Wales questioned Joe about the tie he was wearing. It bore a crest featuring three white ostrich plumes, the emblem of Wales. There were two small initials below the plumes. Pointing to them, Joe told the bemused heir to the British throne: “Your Royal Highness, the C is for Charles and the D is for Diana.”

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, came to the Algarve on a private holiday with her two young daughters the summer after she was famously photographed topless and having her toes sucked by a male American friend. Fergie, Beatrice and Eugenie stayed in a private villa near Lagos. At the end of their stay, paparazzi gathered at the front gates of the villa hoping to photograph the trio leaving, and then follow them to Faro Airport.

A car containing five people shot out of the gates and sped eastwards along the main road towards the airport. The Portimão police chief in full uniform was clearly visible in the front passenger seat, but the three people in the back were much less visible. With the paparazzi in hot pursuit, the get-away car keep going as far as the Penina Hotel on the outskirts of Portimão. There it turned sharply left and headed northwards along a minor road towards the hills. The paparazzi duly swung left and followed.

Ten minutes after the first car and the paparazzi had left the villa, a second car departed rather more sedately. With Fergie and her two daughters at ease in the back seat, this second car drove all the way along the main road to Faro Airport without anyone taking the slightest interest. The three people in the back seat of the first car were police officers. The driver, the man who had devised the successful ruse, was none other than Dr José Pearce de Azevedo, OBE.

The OBE was awarded in 1977, though Joe was not quite sure then what he had done to merit it. He still isn't - though he suspects it had to do with his consular work in the aftermath of the 1974 Portuguese Revolution. This, admits, Joe was the most difficult period of his tenure as consul.

Some worried British expatriates withdrew from the Algarve, at least temporarily, during the turbulent post-revolution period. Among them was the golf legend, Sir Henry Cotton, a close friend and frequent golfing partner of Joe's. To help allay feelings of insecurity among those who stayed, Joe set up an information network by dividing the region into six areas and appointing a prominent expat in each to liaise with the consulate in Portimão. Joe knew key officials such as Major Branco, head of the military forces in the Algarve. He was thus able to brief and relay information between administrators and the British community, whom he liked to refer to as his 'parishioners'.

During this period, Joe had several meetings with the British Ambassador, Sir Nigel Trench. One day Sir Nigel mentioned that when he was appointed ambassador to Lisbon people remarked about how lucky he was because Portugal was the right place to retire to. “The revolution broke out as soon as I arrived. It couldn't be any better!” declared Sir Nigel.

Always a busy man, in addition to working for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Joe served as the first President of the Algarve Tourist Board. He was also head of the Portimão port authority. Not only did all this demand long hours in the office, it also involved frequent working lunches, cocktails parties and dinners. On one such occasion, Joe was able to informally introduce Jack Eden, the British Consul in Lisbon, to the then iconic President of the Portuguese Republic, Mário Soares (pictured above with Joe). It wasn't a formal official occasion; the consuls and the president just happened to be eating in the same restaurant at the time. On meeting Jack Eden again a few days later, Joe held out his hand but Jack refused to shake it saying: “I haven't washed my hand since meeting the President!”

Joe was on close terms and went out of his way to give personal help to visiting politicians, including the likes of Sir Geoffrey Howe, Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving cabinet minister, and Duncan Sands, later Baron Duncan-Sandys, a minister in successive Conservative governments and sometime son-in-law of Sir Winston Churchill.

Another top Thatcherite politician and his wife, whom Joe declined to name, visited the Algarve but were not in their villa when he arrived to greet them and give them a box of Dom Rodrigo cakes, a delicious Algarvian confection. The only person on the property was the gardener, so Joe gave the gift to him, asking him to pass it on to the 'lady of the house' and say it was from the British Consul. The 'lady of the house' must have been well pleased because Joe had gone to the wrong address.

On meeting the top Thatcherite the following day, the politician pompously told Joe that he should be 'more careful' about the address because he did not want people to know his whereabouts. Joe was able to point out that he had gone to the wrong address because it had been incorrectly communicated by the politician's own office in London. Some days later the same MP phoned Joe to say a red briefcase full of documents had been stolen from his holiday villa. Joe set in motion steps to find it. He was successful. The briefcase had been broken into, but it was returned to its owner - with a rope around it to stop the contents falling out.

After paying a courtesy call to a Chief Whip of the Labour party who was staying at a top Algarve hotel, Joe asked the politician if he wanted any message passed on to a visiting Tory cabinet minister with whom Joe was having dinner in a somewhat less salubrious hotel that evening. “Consul, please convey my good wishes to the minister, but not my affection,” said the Labour man. When Joe did so, the Tory asked which hotel the other was staying in. On being told, the minister remarked: “Always the same; Labour in five-star hotels, Conservatives in four.”

Joe was asked by another unnamed MP to persuade apathetic local authorities to connect his villa near Cape St Vincent to mains electricity and water supplies and install a phone line. “I promised to do my best but said nothing was assured as I wasn't God,” Anyway, strings were pulled and the connections were made with such speed and efficiency that the MP felt moved to tell Joe in a letter that he may not be divine, but his influence had been miraculous, on a par with Moses' role in the parting of the Red Sea. The MP said Joe had made it possible for him to “toast my loaves and grill my fishes.” In gratitude he promised to be Joe's “evangelist” in parliament in London. Later, when Joe wrote asking for specialist advice on a certain matter, the “evangelist” didn't even send “Moses” a reply acknowledging receipt of his letter.

Cherie Blair, on the other hand, sent Joe not only a kindly-worded letter, but also a photograph of the whole family standing outside No 10 Downing Street immediately after husband Tony's victory in the 2001 British general election. It was by way of appreciation for a small gift and a helping hand on meeting her with baby Leo in her arms at Faro Airport at the start of a holiday visit staying at Sir Cliff Richard's home near Guia.

Many years earlier, when Joe first encountered Cliff, the pop singer was famous but still young and unknighted. He owned a holiday home in Albufeira close to the town's cemetery. The location ensured peace and quiet. Rumours began circulating that the town hall authorities were planning to re-site the cemetery and replace it with a tourist complex. Cliff told Joe that if that happened, he would leave Albufeira.

It didn't happen and some years later Joe was on hand when the municipality honoured Sir Cliff by naming a street after him. When Sir Cliff was unable to attend a ceremony in the Algarve at which the Portuguese government awarded him a gold medal for his contribution to the country's tourist industry, Joe picked up the medal, along with a similar one for himself. He and Ambassador Roger Westbrook later presented Cliff with the medal in his new house near Guia.

In his early years working for the FCO, Joe was a Lloyds insurance agent. As such he was asked to do a survey of furniture belonging to a small, elderly woman called Mrs Grant who had a home on the outskirts of Lagos. After finishing his assessment, Joe said to this seemingly vulnerable little lady: “As British Consul may I give you a bit of advice? I believe it would be safer for you if you moved closer to Lagos.”

She looked him in the eye and said sternly: “If you knew who I was, where I have been and what I have done, you wouldn't dare to say that young man!”

The formidable Mrs Nellie Grant had been a pioneer settler in British East Africa. Joe met her again at a dinner party organised by a consulate colleague, Donald Armstrong, another ex-Kenyan colonial. Among the guests was Mrs Grant's daughter, Elspeth Huxley (pictured right), who contributed much to the dinner table conversation. A polymath, broadcaster, journalist, author, conservationist, political thinker, magistrate and government adviser, Elspeth had been brought up in Kenya and had written many fine books on colonial Africa, including The Red Flames Trees of Thika. She was a friend of Joy Adamson, who wrote Born Free and an acquaintance of Karen Blixen, author of Our of Africa. At the dinner - now that he was in the know - Joe and Nellie got on just fine.

Joe quietly used his good offices to further ecumenism by introducing John Satterthwaite, Anglican Bishop of Fulham and Gibraltar, to Júlio Tavares Rebimbras, Bishop of Faro and liaised in discussions on the shared use of Algarve churches. Although he mixed a lot with the great and the good, he had a down-to-earth view of his role. “As consul I thought I had to help citizens whenever they needed help, even with matters which at first sight did not seem to be the consul's responsibility.” To this end he was able to call on an array of private as well as official contacts.

Consular work brought Joe into direct contact with British citizens accused of committing serious crimes in the Algarve. He attended trials to see that justice was being done. From the public benches during a trial in a courtroom in Faro he respectfully interrupted proceedings on seeing that the defendant's official interpreter was a policeman. The presiding judge agreed but said the court had been unable to find an alternative. The judge welcomed Joe's offer to produce a suitably qualified person, which he did by immediately enlisting his private secretary at the tourist board office in Faro.

His stature among the legal profession was such that the presiding judge in a much publicised grievous bodily harm case in Albufeira told Joe of the 'not-guilty' verdict over lunch before announcing it in court. Another judge in a murder case confided some time later that he sometimes wondered if the tribunal's guilty verdict had been the right one.

Following the crash-landing of a Dutch DC-10 in severe weather conditions at Faro Airport in 1992, Joe went to the airport both as Consul and as President of the Algarve Tourist Board. Fifty-four of the 327 passengers and two crew members died and 106 people were badly injured in the crash. Nearly all were Dutch holidaymakers. Three of the passengers who had escaped injury had English-sounding names. They had been seen leaving the airport but their whereabouts was not known. Joe tracked them down to the Eva Hotel in the centre of Faro and found them in the bar. Never one to turn down a drink, Joe accepted their invitation to join them in celebrating their survival.

Having witnessed the bravery and skill of the emergency services fighting forest fires and rescuing people in the Monchique hills where many Britons had homes, Joe suggested to the Embassy that it would be appropriate to donate life-saving defibrillators to the bombeiros fire and ambulance volunteers. The Embassy agreed and Joe later handed them over to the bombeiros stations in Lagoa, Monchique and Portimão.

It was his quiet and genuine concern for ordinary citizens that distinguished him as a representative of the British government and why he was so well-known and held in high esteem. During a holiday visit to London he was watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace when, to his astonishment, a guardsman asked him in perfect Portuguese: “Are you Dr Azevedo, the British consul in the Algarve?” It turned out that the British guardsman had mastered the Portuguese language while working at the Dona Filipa Hotel at Vale do Lobo.

His 'parishioners' were a diverse lot, of course. The first customer to come into the consulate in Portimão after it opened in 1965 was a Scot. When it came to signing a document confirming he was a British citizen, he refused to do so on the grounds that by declaring himself 'British', some might think of him as English rather than Scottish.

In his various roles, particularly his long involvement in the British-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce - a branch of which he helped establish in the Algarve - Joe was an honest broker in promoting business, along with such people as his friend of long-standing, chairman of the Chamber and founder of the venerable Penina Hotel near Portimão.

He is proud at being a vice-president of the Anglo-British Society in London, a long-time member of the Royal British Club in Lisbon, honorary president of the 41 Club in the Algarve, and the holder of card number four issued by the Association of Foreign Property Owners in Portugal. More than anyone, he has bridged the cultural gap between Portuguese and British people in the Algarve and further afield, mindful of his favourite motto, “may the hinges of friendship never rust”.

Joe has continuing respect for other retired consular colleagues such as Ron Underwood who still lives in Portimão, but the key figure throughout his long and distinguished career has undoubtedly been the person he calls his “Field Marshall.” The indomitable Zefita has been his devoted wife, wise councillor and steadfast partner through the “good days and the bad days” for the past 53 years.

Who knows, Zefita's memoirs may some day add a fascinating extra dimension to those of her truly remarkable husband.

Bailout requested - what now?

Bailouts are not the only thing the Portuguese and the Irish have in common. Both peoples can be darn stubborn. That is sometimes a beneficial trait, but it was somewhat embarrassing watching the former prime minister, José Sócrates, having to announce on television last night that Portugal needs a financial rescue package. He had spent months digging his heals in, saying such a measure was neither needed nor wanted. He was one of the very few people in economic circles who didn't think it inevitable.

What now? Details of the bailout have yet to be discussed. The request will be processed “in the swiftest possible manner, according to the rules applicable,” says the president of the European Commission, Manuel José Barroso. As a former Portuguese prime minister himself, Barroso said he had “confidence in Portugal's capacity to overcome its present difficulties.”

That is easy enough to say, of course. Now that the country's debt crisis has spiralled out of control, the Portuguese government will have to agree to tough austerity targets in return for a bailout. But who are the decision-makers going to be in the negotiating process? The country only has a caretaker government at present. The general election is still eight weeks away.

Greece needed 110 billion euros; Ireland needed 85 billion. Portugal may need a bit less, but it could be as much as 75 or 80 billion – not that a few billion here or there makes much difference to your average Portuguese man or woman who earns less than a thousand a month and can't possibly get their head around a million let alone a billion.

Even with a rescue package from the EU and the IMF on the way, the problem certainly doesn't end there. Portugal's economic, political and social problems are such that the country has a massive uphill struggle ahead.

And for the eurozone as a whole, things could get a whole lot worse. It remains to be seen if Portugal's bailout request satisfies the all-important bond markets. The fear is that the domino effect will now move to the very much bigger economy in neighbouring Spain.

Rising interest rates could have a devastating impact on Spain's trillion euro economy. The worry is that Spain, which, unlike Portugal, has suffered a huge decline in house prices and has unemployment running at far more than twice that of Portugal, may be too big to bailout.

This may be taking the doom and gloom scenario a bit too far. The Goldman Sachs Group are saying today that Portugal is likely to be the last euro country to seek an international bailout.

C.A.R. Hills - a writer troubled by love

I arranged to meet the acclaimed writer C.A.R. Hills in a beachside village in the eastern Algarve last weekend to learn more about why he had tried to hire contract killers to murder his mother's lover. I was also interested in why he had attempted to strangle a care worker. I knew he had served time for these crimes, but I was surprised to discover that he is now facing a recall to prison for breaching the terms of his parole licence by absconding to Portugal.

The one thing you can't fault Hills on is his openness and honesty. “In theory, I should feel remorseful about what I have done, but I don't,” he told me.

Charles Hills, as he is known outside the literary world, doesn't come across as a would-be murderer. Aged 55, physically he is short, overweight, unfit. Mentally he is the opposite: extremely alert, well-read and articulate. He smiles a lot, enjoys company and welcomes a bit of banter. Behind this façade, however, lies a lonely man who has always lived on his own and who suffers bouts of depression.

So how did he fall foul of the law? His story is one of surprising irrationality and ineptitude. Bizarrely, it is also a story of love. It is rooted in his love for his mother - an excessive, obsessive adoration that went far beyond the norm.

Maria José dos Reis was born into a peasant community near Mafra in 1923. After World War II she went to London and worked as a maid. She married an Englishman but it was an unhappy union. Charles was their only son. His father left his mother for another woman.

A bookworm throughout his childhood in Crawley, Sussex, Charles graduated from Oxford University and became a well-known figure in London literary circles. Under the name C.A.R. Hills he has written books, edited the journal PEN News and contributed to such publications as the Guardian, the New Statesman, and especially Prospect magazine.

According to Charles, his mother was “very independent, hard-headed, dynamic, lively and lovely.” Always smartly dressed, she ruled the Hills' household during the marriage. Having become a silver-service waitress, she stopped working in 1983 at the age of 60 and decided to return to Portugal.

Charles was 27 then. “I broke down and cried when I said goodbye to her at Crawley Station. I knew it was the beginning of a parting that would be for ever.”

Maria eventually bought a three-bedroomed house in Altura near the Algarve-Spanish border. On settling back in this country she could be rather snobby towards the Portuguese in an English sort of way, Charles said. Nonetheless, when she was well into her seventies she fell for the charms of a local gardener and handyman called Flávio Rosa. He was 30 years her junior, only two years older than Charles.

Although married with four children, Flávio moved in with Maria. Charles first learned they were having sex when his mother admitted it during a visit to London in 2000. It wasn't the sexual activity that bothered him. He became angry when his mother told him she had altered her will to give Flávio the right to permanently occupy the Altura house for the rest of his life. By that time Maria was suffering from Alzheimer's. Charles was convinced Flávio had exploited her confused vulnerability.

According to Portuguese law, as the owner's son, Charles would inherit his mother's house after her death. But he did not like the idea of sharing it with Flávio. Maria told Charles she had given Flávio the right to live in an upstairs flat. Later, on being allowed to read the will, Charles discovered that it was the whole house to which Flávio had living rights.

“The issue as I saw it was that my mother had tied me up in knots from which I could never escape. I wanted my freedom, and to be a whole person.”

For many years Charles lived alone in Clapham, London. It wa there that he went off the rails. The deaths of his mother in 2002 and father in 2004 worsened his delusional mental condition.

“The process of my gradual disintegration took about four years, during which I moved between England and Portugal and in many ways continued to live a normal life. Some people did not notice anything was wrong. Life in cities like London and Lisbon is an isolating process.”

There were, however, some very conspicuous and serious incidents. At times he raged. He tried to strangle the director of a social club for people recovering from mental illness. He admits he would have killed her had he been able to get both hands around her neck. He also tried to kill himself with an overdose. “As my mental health declined, I started fantasising that I was related to Goebbels. Soon it all became too much and I swallowed 100 pills,” he wrote while in Belmarsh prison.

He had already undergone psychiatric treatment by the time he decided to have Flávio killed. “I realised I couldn't do it myself. I became obsessed with finding a hitman.”

The first person he approached was a down-and-out drifter who disappeared with an up-front cash payment of £2,500. In 2006, indiscreet inquiries led to a series of meetings in London pubs with seeming 'professionals' and a £15,000 agreement: Flavio's death would look like and accident and his body would be dumped over the border in Spain.

Charles, who had always been broke and in debt, planned to fund the murder operation with a bank loan, dole money and help from the Royal Literary Fund. In the end no money was needed. He had been negotiating with undercover police officers.

In the Old Bailey in 2007, entirely in line with his open and honest character, Charles admitted his guilt to charges of soliciting to murder and grievous bodily harm. His seven-year sentence was reduced to five years upon appeal. With good behaviour he was paroled after serving two and a half. One of those years was so “unpleasant” he won't discuss it.

As if to emphasise just how absurd his criminal delusions had been, a Portuguese court overturned the will on the grounds that it had been made while Maria was suffering from dementia. In November 2009, Flávio was evicted.

After all he has been through, Charles doesn't like the house he has inherited and would like to sell it, but can't, not yet anyway. Apart from the state of the property market, the house is still in legal limbo. He is living off the proceeds of the flat he owned in Clapham and another near Lisbon.

Charles recently met his mother's lover again in Altura. The meeting was amicable, considering what had gone on before.

“I don't think I ever really hated Flávio,” he said. “It was just that he stood in the way of my freedom. When I saw him recently, when he came to collect his things, I didn't dislike him at all, nor, I think, did he me. We really got on very well and I helped him and his friends carry things to the van.”

Perhaps this attitude can be explained at least in part because Charles became a “liberal” Christian while in prison. “I'm not dogmatic, but I hold to the basics of Christianity,” he said.

Looking back on his murderous intentions, he does not see himself as a worse sinner than anyone else. “In theory I should feel remorseful, but I don't.” He conceded that perhaps it would be different if he had actually strangled the social worker, or succeeded in having Flávio eliminated.

But his days of wrong-doing are not yet over. Charles is now a writer on the run. After four months of regularly reporting to the authorities, he decided he'd had enough. He broke the terms of his parole licence and left Britain illegally.

Does he think he will be re-arrested and returned to prison? He doesn't know and doesn't seem to care. “It's in the hands of Jesus,” he told me with a shrug.

It is ironic that Charles' problems have stemmed not from hatred, but from love – his mother's love for him and his love for her. “She was certainly the most important person in my life. I think she spoilt me for love. I have never succeeded in finding any other love in my adult life.”

What of the future? Nine years after her death, Charles has come to terms with his mother's passing. The focus of his life now is not on his mother, nor the consequences of his infamy as Charles Hills, but on his quest for higher recognition as the writer C.A.R. Hills.

“I would like to leave Portugal, which has unhappy memories for me. I might travel a bit, and then buy a small house or apartment in Italy. I would need to find someone who is interested in my story and willing to pay a bit over the odds for my Portuguese house so that I could leave. Italy has something in common with Portugal, but the atmosphere is different, I do not think that I would find sadness there. Perhaps there, in a small city I already know, I can grow old gracefully, finish writing the story of my life, and at last learn how to love.”

General election two months away

Following the formal dissolution of parliament yesterday it was announced that the next general election in Portugal will be held on June 5.

In making the announcement, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva said: “I took the decision to call a general election given the clear degradation of the political situation, shown by the growing difficulty of the minority government and the opposition in agreeing on measures to overcome the economic and social problems Portugal faces.”

He called for a "sober, constructive and enlightened” campaign and said candidates should not make promises that cannot be fulfilled. It is not a time for "illusions or false utopias," he said.

The centre-right Social Democrats, the main opposition to the Socialist government under José Sócrates, say they are confident of winning a majority in the next parliament. This is in line with recent opinion polls.

The next government is expected to face an unprecedented economic crisis. The presumption of most analysts and commentators remains that Portugal will be forced to follow Greece and Ireland in seeking a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Portugal today sold 1.65 billion euros in an extraordinary sale of short-term bonds, but analysts said its high cost of borrowing was still likely to force it into an international bailout within months, according to Reuters.

"Revised budget figures for last year have added to Lisbon's woes as it faces making 12 billion worth of debt payments in April and June that investors speculate may push state finances over the edge," the agency reports.

Royal couple locked out of their limo

Compared with Portugal's other current problems, the one in Sintra today turned out to be easily solved, though somewhat embarrassing.

On the second day of their visit to Portugal, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were supposed to plant two roses in the magnificent rose garden at the Palace of Montserrat. For security reasons, this plan was adjusted and they just planted roses in a couple of pots next to the palace.

Diário de Notícias reports that as they were about to leave amid tight security, it became apparent that the car key had been locked inside the royal limousine. This caused great mirth among the 200 or so guests present. Charles and Camilla had to leave the palace in another car.

No doubt Lord Byron, who famously referred to Sintra as "glorious Eden", would also have been amused.

Charles and Camilla exude warmth during cool and wet reception

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were given a less than rapturous welcome at their first engagement in Portugal today, but it had much to do with the weather which, the Duchess later joked, they had "brought with them from Britain".

The few spectators awaiting their arrival at the 16th century Jerónimos Monastery got cold and wet. Many were pupils from the English-language St Peter's school.

The car carrying the royal couple came armed with umbrellas, but Camilla was wearing a lovely dark blue coat much better suited to a pleasant spring day. As it was, there was a chilly wind and it was pouring with rain. 

Despite the weather, those who spoke with the royals were taken by the genuine warmth of their personalities. In their chatty exchanges, both Charles and Camilla came across as very open and natural, said Lú Batley who took these photographs.

The royal couple placed a wreath at the tomb of the iconic Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões at the monastery. The Duchess was presented with a posy of flowers by seven-year-old Ilona Verdon-Roe.

Later, the royal couple were guests of honour at a state dinner at Lisbon's Queluz Palace hosted by President Aníbal Cavaco Silva and his wife, Dr Maria Cavaco Silva. The 100 guests sat down to tomato soup, sea bass and a traditional Portuguese fig-based dessert. In a toast, Charles paid tribute to the long tradition of mutual respect and cooperation between the two countries.

This was the start of a 10-day tour of Portugal, Spain and Morocco, mainly to promote UK trade.

Decisive days....Saturday 26

An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale shook the western Algarve this morning but caused no damage. It was a mild and untroubling event compared with the shattering problems of the past few days that seem set to continue well into the future.

The President of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva is expected to call for a snap election in late May or early June. This has been requested by all the political parties, including the centre-right Social Democrats (PSD).

The PSD leader, Pedro Passos Coelho, told the President he wanted an election as soon as possible. He said he was optimistic that his party would win an absolute majority.

The political turmoil has heightened concerns that Portugal will need an EU bailout. Even as EU leaders in Brussels agreed their comprehensive new plans aimed at calming markets and making the euro less vulnerable, Portugal's 10-year bond yields rose to 7.80 percent, a record high that shows investors fear the country might not be able to pay off debts that are coming due.

Portugal must make a large debt repayment in May, while the country is still in political limbo, and an even larger one in mid-June, probably shortly after a new government takes over from the current caretaker.

Decisive days......Friday 25

Portugal's continued stubbornness in resisting a bailout is frustrating EU leaders who have reached agreement in Brussels on a comprehensive financial bailout fund that they hope will resolve Europe's debt crisis.

After months of negotiation, only details remain to be tidied up for a permanent new version of the European Stability Mechanism to help troubled eurozone countries.

Meanwhile, caretaker Prime Minister José Sócrates is sticking by his insistence that Portugal will not follow Greece and Ireland in seeking a rescue package.

It is generally accepted in Brussels, however, that it is only a matter of time before Portugal will have to bow to pressure and request outside financial help.

The political as well as economic mess Portugal finds itself in has overshadowed what was to have been an upbeat summit in Brussels.

In Lisbon, the outcome is awaited of discussions between President Aníbal Cavaco Silva and the six political parties represented in parliament on whether they would prefer to form a coalition government or go for an early election. The latter seems more likely, probably in May or early June.

An opinion poll published today showed that the lSocial Democrats would win an absolute majority if elections were held now.

Decisive days....Thursday 24

Today's EU summit meeting in Brussels has been thrown into some disarray by Portugal having neither a prime minister nor an elected government at a time of financial crisis.

The resignation of José Sócrates and the collapse of his Socialist government in Lisbon yesterday have left negotiators in Brussels unsure of who they should be negotiating with. Sócrates is attending the meeting but only as head of a caretaker government. A new general election in Portugal is weeks away.

Meanwhile, the question of a bailout for Portugal appears to be in limbo. The EU is willing to provide one of about €60 to €80 billion, but Sócrates and the Socialists are adamant they don't want or need it.

On resigning yesterday, Sócrates warned yet again of what he called “the profoundly negative consequences of seeking foreign aid."

No formal talks on a bailout have begun in Brussels, but EU member states are believed to be putting pressure on Portugal to ask for an assistance package amid concerns that continued resistance would endanger the stability of the 17-member euro zone.

It is thought a snap election could be held in May. “In the meantime, it's going to be a rocky few weeks” for Portugal, said Angel Gurria, the secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in a speech in Washington.

Decisive days...Wednesday 23

Prime Minister José Sócrates resigned after Parliament rejected austerity measures proposed by the minority Socialist government to help Portugal avoid having to seek an international bailout.

Sócrates and his party had long opposed a bailout because of the tough fiscal conditions it would bring.

Parliament's rejection of the proposals “has taken away from the government all conditions to govern," the out-going prime minister said in a televised statement after the vote. He said his government would remain in power in a caretaker capacity.

All of the opposition parties spoke against the government's austerity measures, which called for reduced pensions and state spending.

Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos warned that a rejection of the government's plan "will provoke an immediate rise in the country's risk and immediate consequences in terms of credit ratings."

To have its  measures accepted and thus avert the collapse of the government, the Socialist Party needed 116 votes.The government has only 97 of the total of 230 seats in parliament.

Decisive days: Portugal on the brink

Portugal's minority Socialist Government could fall tomorrow. This is likely if the opposition centre-right Social Democrats (PSD) vote, as expected, against austerity measures designed to ease the country's huge debt burden and stave off a bailout.

Deadlock emerged yesterday when the PSD under Pedro Passos Coelho again refused to back new measures, thus making it likely that Prime Minister José Sócrates and his government will resign. (Coelho is on the left, Sócrates on the right of this photo).

Resignation would thrust Portugal into political limbo pending an early general election. Political limbo would further complicate an economic crisis at the very time Portugal and other Eurozone countries are trying to build investor confidence.

The Social Democrats, who are virtually assured of winning the next election, agree that the country must take radical steps to reduce the country's debt. They agreed to previous tax increases and pay cuts, but say proposed further measures, such as freezing old-age pensions, would be deeply unfair to more vulnerable members of society.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have made their feelings clear in recent weeks by taking to the streets and holding strikes. Further demonstrations are in the offing.

The current frenzy of activity relating to Portuguese affairs continues on Thursday with Eurozone leaders meeting for a two-day summit on problems facing the bloc and, in particular, its weaker members. Then Portugal will be faced with finding cash to meet April and May bond repayments amounting to almost €9.5 billion.

Into the maelstrom next Monday at the start of a three-day visit will step the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall who, among other things, are hoping to promote British business interests in Portugal.

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Prince Charles and Camilla to visit Portugal at a time of turmoil

There was something surreal about yesterday's announcement from Clarence House in London that the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are to pay an official visit to Portugal this month.

A delightful diversion for Portugal's upper echelons provided by their oldest ally?  An unintentional red rag to the hoi polloi in a debt-ridden republic at a time of political, economic and social turmoil? Maybe a bit of both.

This latest royal tour, which begins in Lisbon on 28^th March, will also take Charles and Camilla to Spain and Morocco. Although it was probably arranged many months ago, the timing and objectives now seem unfortunate.

It's a ten-day freebie intended to fly the flag for Britain. To be fair, it wasn't the royal couple's idea. They are making the trip at the request of the British Government. The main themes are trade and investment promotion, as well as climate change and the construction of low carbon economies.

In Lisbon, the Duke and Duchess will celebrate long-standing co-operation between the Portuguese and British Navies, support British trade and investment opportunities and highlight the work of the sizeable resident British community. The President of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, will host an official dinner in the capital. There will be a morning trip to the historic city of Évora in the Alentejo, north of the Algarve.

This will be Camilla's first official visit to Portugal. Charles has been here twice before. Both are much more familiar with Spain. Charles has been there 10 times already and after Lisbon he and Camilla will be received in Madrid by the Prince and Princess of Asturias. Later they will be wined and dined by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, old chums of Charles.

In Morocco they will be the guests of King Mohammed VI who has recently announced constitutional reforms in the face of demonstrations broken up in Casablanca last weekend by riot police. Clarence House would not comment on security arrangements for the tour except to say they would be “closely monitored.”

To put things further into context, the announcement by Clarence House came just three days after the Socialist Government in Lisbon introduced more controversial austerity measures. They did so without informing President Cavavo Silva or the opposition Social Democrats beforehand.

The new measures include cuts in operational and administrative costs for the state-run health service. Labour costs and unemployment benefits are also to be reviewed at a time when unemployment is at a record level of more than 11%. Manuel Carvalho da Silva, head of Portugal's largest union, CGTP, said the new measures "will create an even more severe recession in a country that is already stricken by poverty.”

Portugal is now close to the brink of political collapse. An early general election seems inevitable and all the indications are that the Socialists will be replaced by the centre-right Social Democrats with an absolute majority in parliament.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of frustrated young people, the so-called Geração à Rasca, took to the streets of Lisbon, Oporto and elsewhere last weekend to air their feelings of hopelessness and protest about abysmal pay and job prospects. Today the Metro train system in Lisbon was brought to a total standstill because of a strike over pay cuts. Tomorrow, truckers protesting about rising diesel prices are expected to stymie filling-station supplies. In the Algarve, further disruptive protests are planned against the introduction of motorway tolls seen to be harmful to tourism and other local busineses.

In some ways, of course, nothing much has changed. There are the haves and the have-nots. The travails of the real world are still a far-cry from the niceties of royal receptions.

Modern values:
Money tops today's worries
The American Business Insider website reminded its readers on Monday this week that “the Portuguese are the most fearful people in Europe.” The comment referred to a survey conducted in 2002 by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Statistics. The survey concluded, for example, that 71% of Portuguese were fearful of a world war, 87% were scared of epidemics and more than half had anguish about mad cow disease. As worriers, the Portuguese were rated top of the EU pile, more angst-riddled than the Greeks and much more so than the Irish. And that was long before the emergence of the current economic crisis!

Another often commented upon feature of the Portuguese psyche is a well-developed concern about honour. That came to the fore on Tuesday when the news agencies reported Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates as saying that if Portugal accepted a Greek or Irish-style bailout it “would lose its prestige and dignity.” It would no longer be able “to present itself to the world as a country that succeeds in solving its problems.”

While the media are often keen to emphasise and even exaggerate difficulties, Sócrates cannot be accused of that - not when it comes to the bailout issue anyway. For months he has been insisting that Portugal does not need or want a bailout. He has been at pains to downplay the problems that many analysts believe make a bailout inevitable. He did so again after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin last week.

“I believe that the responsibility of any political leader is to have confidence in the Portuguese people, confidence in his country," Sócrates declared yesterday, with a summit meeting of 17 eurozone leaders scheduled for this Friday.

But do the Portuguese people have confidence in their prime minister? He has done much to try to stabilise the economic situation but he has not done enough, say his critics. They include a large section of the country's youth who are expected to join street protests in Lisbon, Oporto and other cities on Saturday. The organisers are hoping for a massive, non-partisan and peaceful turnout.

The idea for the protests originated with three friends meeting last month in a Lisbon cafe. João Labrincha, 27, Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, 26, and Paula Gil, 25. They decided to use Facebook to mobilise and give voice to the country's disenchanted youth, the so-called 'lost generation'.

In a few weeks, without spending a single euro, the trio had spread the word among tens of thousands of young people who see little prospect of secure, decently paid employment – or any employment at all.

Protesters will be encouraged not only to put their reasons for protesting in writing, but to suggest solutions. The plan is to deliver the paperwork to parliament. “With greater social dialogue between politicians, employers and civil society, you can change the situation in which we live,” said one of the organisers.

President Aníbal Cavaco Silva seems to agree. In a speech today marking the start of his second term as Head of State, he pointedly reaffirmed his "great confidence" in the country's youth. He expressed his "profound conviction" that young people could make a crucial contribution to building a more developed and fairer country, and one with greater credibility internationally.  

Money may continue for some time to be a major worry, but mercifully just now there is much less talk of a world war, epidemics or mad cow disease.

Beware the Ides of March!

March is shaping up to be a key month politically, economically and socially in Portugal.

If the Portuguese went to the polls tomorrow, the present Socialist government would be humiliated. The latest opinion poll shows that the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) would win an absolute majority of nearly 48 percent. The Socialists (PS) would be left trailing in second place with just 29 percent.

Although a general election is not scheduled until 2013, the recently re-elected President Aníbal Cavaco Silva has the power to dismiss the prime minister and dissolve parliament if he feels the situation is serious enough to warrant such a measure. The President, although in theory above party politics, is a former leader of the PSD and it was the PSD who backed his re-election campaign.

The small left-wing Left Bloc in parliament has proposed a vote of no confidence in the government in March. Of greater importance is that for many weeks now, PSD members have been calling for the resignation of Prime Minister José Sócrates if Portugal is forced to go cap in hand and ask for a bailout. Most analysts now agree that it is not 'if' but 'when'. It is likely to happen in March - or April at the latest.

Despite Portugal's stubborn efforts to avoid it, ever-spiralling debt levels will almost certainly force the government to concede and ask for help from the European stability fund. It is already under pressure from EU countries, especially Germany, to follow Greece and Ireland in seeking a bailout. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked Sócrates to go to Berlin for a meeting to discuss the issue on Wednesday, 2^nd March. This is believed to be by way of preparation for further discussions on the same subject during EU summit meetings scheduled for 11^th March and 24^th March.

The economic and political tightrope walking is going on amid growing social unrest about pay-cuts, job losses, dwindling employment prospects, increasing unemployment rates and higher prices.. A huge turn out is expected in the streets of Lisbon on March 12th to vent public anger and make demands, such as cuts in senior civil servant benefits.

There is disquiet throughout the country, not just Lisbon, and not just among the young. In the Algarve, the major economic activity, the region's 'life-blood' -  tourism - is struggling. On top of everything else, Easter, the traditional start of the summer season, is late this year.

Tourism is not going to be helped by the introduction of tolls on the A22 trans-Algarve motorway. The tolls have been denounced by just about everyone in the Algarve - but the government seems determined to impose them anyway – starting on 15th April, exactly a week before Good Friday.