Travel Rent Car Hire Portugal Sources of Travel Rent Car Hire Portugal resources from the Web

Prime Minister José Sócrates was sworn in by President Jorge Sampaio on March 12. To many's suprise, Sócrates formed a cabinet made up of roughly half senior members of the Socialist Party and half independents, among whom are Diogo Freitas do Amaral, founder of the rightist Partido Popular and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Portugal is sometimes known as "a country of poets". In fact, Portuguese poetry has a bigger influence in the country's literature than prose. In the dawn of nationality, poetry in Portuguese-Galician was widely popular in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. There are excellent works, in lyrical as in epic poetry. Without a doubt, the most worldwide known Portuguese poets are Luís de Camões and Fernando Pessoa, but we should also state the modern Portuguese poetry (since the 19th century) has its roots in a handful of relevant poets, from neo-classicism to these days.

The four main organs of the national government are the presidency, the prime minister and Council of Ministers (the government), the Assembly of the Republic (the parliament), and the judiciary.

Portugal is characterized by city, town or village cultural differentiation and there is virtually no regional affiliation, unlike other European countries. Portuguese is spoken throughout the country, with only the villages of Miranda de Douro's Leonese dialect recognised as a locally co-official language. It is known as Mirandese. The closely related Asturian dialect in Spain is another Leonese dialect but not officially recognized by Spain.

Within the Portuguese political culture, the PSD is described as center-right and the PS is described as center-left. Other parties with seat in the parliament are the PP (Partido Popular) – Popular Party, PCP (Partido Comunista Português) – Communists, Os Verdes – The Greens, and the BE (Bloco de Esquerda) – Left Block. BE, Os Verdes and PCP are left wing and the PP right wing.

The first documented invasion occurred long before the birth of Christ, when the Ophis with other tribes entered the Iberian Peninsula and instaled in the best lands of the Oestreminis, near the Douro and Tagus Rivers. Later the territory has been conquered or settled by numerous civilizations. Celts, Greeks, Iberians and Lusitanians to name some. The Phoenicians also settled in that part of the peninsula and had great influence on the Lusitanians, especially on their religion, culture and language. The Lusitanians are seen as the proto-Portuguese.

The threat of a communist takeover in Portugal generated considerable concern among the country's NATO allies. The revolution also led to the country abruptly abandoning its colonies overseas and to the return of an estimated 600,000 Portuguese citizens from abroad.

The Socialist Party, under the leadership of António Guterres, came to power following the October 1995 parliamentary elections. The Socialists later won a new mandate by winning exactly half the parliamentary seats in the October 1999 election, and constituing then the XIV Constitutional Government.

In 1095 Portugal seperated almost definitly from the Kingdom of Galicia, Both under the rule of the kingdom of Leon, just like Castille (Burgos). Its territories consisting largely of mountain, moorland and forest, were bounded on the north by the Minho, on the south by the Mondego.

Continental Portugal is split in two by its main river, the Tagus (Tejo). To the north the landscape is mountainous in the interior areas with plateaus, cut by four breakings lines that allow the development of relevant agricultural areas. Portugal's highest point, however, is Mount Pico (2351m) in the Azores.

Portugal proposed the creation of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to improve its ties with other Portuguese-speaking countries. Additionally, Portugal has participated, along with Spain, in a series of Ibero-American summits.

The islands of the Azores and Madeira are volcanic in origin, and in the Azores, one to nine volcanoes are possibly active.

With the 1975-76 independence of its colonies (except Macau, because it hadn't any independentist movement), the 560 year old Portuguese Empire had already effectively ended. With it, 15 years of war effort also came to an end. Also many Portuguese returned from the colonies, coming to comprise a sizeable sector of the population and starting an economic recovery, thus opening new paths for the country's future just as others closed. In 1986, Portugal entered the European Union.

Portugal's April 25, 1976 constitution reflected the country's 1974-76 move from authoritarian rule to provisional military government to a parliamentary democracy with some initial communist and left-wing influence. The military coup in 1974 was a result of the colonial wars and removed the authoritarian dictator, Marcelo Caetano, from power.