A presidential spy plot amid tight election polls

By Daniel Rosario - 24.09.2009 / 07:15 CET

Portugal's Socialists face second defeat of the year as the far-left set to make big gains.

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CONCERNED Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates (left) and Manuela Ferreira Leite, leader of the Social Democrats. REUTERS

Fact file

The challenger

Manuela Ferreira Leite became Portugal's first female finance minister in 2002 and imposed tough austerity measures to cut the country's excessive deficit. This, combined with the 69-year-old's austere appearance and attitude, won her the reputation of a Lusitanian ‘Iron Lady'.

After long and bitter infighting, she was elected president of the PSD in May 2008, becoming the first woman ever to lead one of the two main Portuguese political parties. The position pushed her right into the limelight and exposed her as never before.

Her supporters defend what they consider to be a sober and serious way of conducting politics, but her critics never cease to recall her opposition to gay marriage (“a family's purpose is procreation”) and her criticism of government plans for major public works on the grounds that “it would reduce unemployment only in Cape Verde and Ukraine” – a reference to two of the most numerous immigrant communities in Portugal.