Constitutional Court poised to rule on government’s austerity package

The Constitutional Court is expected to rule on Monday on the validity of the government’s austerity package for 2011 pushed through Parliament in a state of legislative emergency late last year. The court has been dealing with a complaint filed by the opposition Social Democrats who question the validity of the respective laws on the argument that there were no proper grounds for calling a state of legislative emergency at the time. The government resorted to the move shortly after the Senate elections in which the governing parties lost their majority in the upper chamber and the opposition threatened to block the bills.