Portugal Is Seen Needing Bailout as Austerity Plan Fails, Prime Minister ResignsLISBON—Portugal’s parliament rejected a new government austerity plan Wednesday, spurring the resignation of Prime Minister José Sócrates and setting off a new phase in Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis.The failure to pass the measure, after a heated debate, threatened to push already-high government borrowing costs to unaffordable levels and force Lisbon to seek a bailout.
That would make Portugal the third among the 17 nations that use the euro to apply for help from other members of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Greece and Ireland went first.