Bailed-out Portugal's president has asked the country's Constitutional Court to check whether new austerity measures included in this year's budget are lawful.
The government has said that the steep tax hikes and welfare cuts in its 2013 spending plan are needed to pull the country out of its debt hole.
Portugal needed a €78 billion bailout in May 2011 to avert bankruptcy as it was engulfed by the euro zone's financial crisis.
President Anibal Cavaco Silva said in his annual New Year's message - broadcast last night - that he signed the budget into law because Portugal cannot afford a political crisis.
But, with opposition parties promising to challenge the budget in the courts, the head of state said he wanted to make sure the steps taking away long-standing entitlements are permissible.
