Portuguese election set to return 'hung' parliament.

Portuguese voters go to the polls in two days in an election that may produce a minority government.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates’s Socialist Party led the Social Democrats of former Finance Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite 40 percent to 31.6 percent, in a poll yesterday by Diario Economico.

Socrates, 52, has pledged to step up public-works in Portugal spending on such projects as a 7.5 billion-euro ($11 billion) high-speed rail network to revive economic growth and create jobs. Ferreira Leite, 68, says the Portuguese people can’t afford such spending and will focus on smaller projects, cutting the debt.

The next government will inherit an economy that the Bank of Portugal says will shrink 3.5 percent this year and that has failed to achieve annual growth of 2 percent since 2001. The government forecasts a budget gap of 5.9 percent of gross domestic product, almost twice the European Union limit. Joblessness reached a 22-year-high 9.1 percent and is climbing.

Socrates’s efforts to control public spending, including raising the retirement age for civil servants and changing labor laws, cost him support with workers, the party’s base. His policies triggered various protests, including one that drew 100,000 Portuguese teachers, and he faced the country’s first general strike since 2002.

Yesterday’s poll giving the Socialists 40 percent was the best showing for the party since the start of the campaign on Sept 14. In most prior polls, support for the Socialists peaked at about 38 percent and their lead over the Social Democrats was often within the margin of error.

Socialist voters have been defecting to the Communists and the 10-year-old Left Bloc, rather than the Social Democrats, polls indicate. In yesterday’s poll, the Left Bloc had 9 percent, while a Communist-led coalition and the People’s Party each drew 8.2 percent support. In the latest elections, the June 7 vote for the European Parliament, the Left Bloc and Communists took a combined 21.4 percent.

Without a majority, Socrates will be forced to scale back his ambitions.

Portuguese Festa - in Hawaii??

Yep that's right - in Hawaii.

The Hawaii Council on Portuguese Heritage presents its 31st annual Portuguese Festa, featuring the music, costumes and crafts of the Portuguese in Hawaii — not to mention the food. Dine on mainstays such as Portuguese bean soup, malassadas, vinha d'alhos pork, codfish stew and Portuguese sausage hot dogs on sweet-bread buns.

According to some accounts, the first European to find the Hawaiian Islands may have been a sea captain from Portugal who was sailing under the flag of Spain, approximately 200 years before Captain Cook arrived. The first Portuguese contract laborers came to Hawaii from the Azores and the Madeira Islands many of them arrived between 1877 and 1884. By 1884 there were nearly 10,000 Portuguese workers in Hawaii and by the early 1900's there were more then 15,000.

The first Festa organized by the Hawaii Council on Portuguese Heritage took place in 1978.

Portugal's Iron Lady declares war on public expenditure

The leader of the opposition Social Democrats (PSD) said on Thursday that Portugal's growing debt levels were unsustainable and promised an "enormous fight" on public spending if elected this month.

Manuela Ferreira Leite, a former finance minister for the Portuguese centre-right PSD, told a conference the key to boosting growth in western Europe's poorest country was to cut public spending and stimulate private sector investment.

Her speech laid out what are likely to become the main battle lines before the Sept. 27 general election between the ruling Socialists' pledge to launch huge infrastructure projects and the PSD's drive to cut spending.

"The country is extremely indebted, we are at a debt level that is unsustainable," she said. "That is why I support a Titanic fight against the infrastructure projects."

Ferreira Leite, who has been described as the "Iron Lady" of Portuguese politics, said cutting taxes in the short-term was not feasible because of the deep recession but promised to do everything possible to make that possible in the future.

Portugal's growth has lagged behind European partners in recent years and the economy is seen contracting 3.4 percent in 2009. Prime Minister Jose Socrates' Socialists edged ahead to 34.5 percent support in an opinion poll this week against the PSD's 28.9 percent backing.

The Socialists promise that large infrastructure projects, including a high-speed TGV rail-link to Spain and a new airport for Lisbon, are key to hauling the Portuguese economy out of its worst recession in decades due to the global economic crisis.

While Ferreira Leite's promises of deep spending cuts in Portugal's bloated public sector is unpopular with civil servants, her focus on debt rings true with many Portuguese who remember that their country was the first to breach EU budget deficit rules after the introduction of the euro.

Portuguese festival of culture

LUDLOW, Mass. - Once a year Ludlow becomes a mecca for thousands of Portugese-Americans from all over New England.

Sunday was the day of the Our Lady of Fatima Festa on the grounds of Ludlow's Our Lady of Fatima Church. Hundreds of visitors come every year to enjoy Portuguese food, music, and the opportunity to worship during their candlelight procession after dark.

Visitors who come from as far away as Providence, will take part in the candlelight procession through the streets of Ludlow, a centuries old tradition that has been practiced by Lady of Fatima church in for more than 60 years as part of the celebration of portuguese culture, language and traditions.