Without any previous political activity, he was appointed Minister of Finance in Pedro Passos Coelho's cabinet on 21 June 2011. In this capacity, Gaspar's policies included a firm intention to accomplish the European Union/IMF-led rescue plan for Portugal's sovereign debt crisis. The rescue plan consisted of widespread tax increases and reforms aimed at better efficiency and rationalized resource allocation in the public sector, in order to reduce the number of unnecessary civil servants and the public sector's chronic overcapacity. As time went on it became increasingly clear that a series of supplementary measures would be taken during the course of the year as a means to restrain an out-of-control budget deficit. These included sharp cuts in spending on state-run healthcare, education and social security systems, along with widespread tax hikes. On 18 October 2011 Gaspar told Portugal's main TV channel RTP1 that the wage cuts imposed on civil servants the previous week in the presentation of the State Budget for 2012 were the only way to avoid a much more painful and complex policy of mass firing of civil servants. He said that if wage cuts were not enforced, it would be necessary to sack of about 100,000 civil servants immediately. On 1 July 2013, he resigned and was replaced by Maria Luís Albuquerque, who had been Secretary of State of Treasury under him. Allegedly he had tried to leave office eight months earlier due to pressure of public opinion, but several newspapers reported the pivotal moment came when he was insulted and spat in a supermarket by other customers when he was shopping with his wife without personal security. He called Pedro Passos Coelho the same day, stressing he wanted to leave the government on the earliest convenience. Nevertheless, in his resignation letter, Gaspar stated that his departure was due to the growing erosion of public support for austerity measures., although these policies were largely continued by Albuquerque.
Later career
Since 2014 he is the director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund. More recently Gaspar has come under fire as a result of a number of allegations that he prohibited studies relating to excessive rents being received from the State by EDP - Electricidade de Portugal - from being made public so as not to affect the valuation of EDP ahead of its last privatisation phase. In a parliamentary hearing, the former Minister of Economy, Alvaro Santos Pereira, at present head of research at OECD, and the former secretary State of Economy, Henrique Gomes, confirmed that studies relating to excessive rents, charged by EDP, which for the period 2007-2020 may have amounted to €4 billion, were presented to Gaspar but he decided not to disclose this information rather than mandating the Ministry of Economy to seek compensation and financial remedies for the State. Incidentally, the terms and conditions of the contracts signed in 2007 by the Portuguese Ministry of Economy, led by Manuel Pinho, and EDP, led by António Mexia and Manso Neto, are now being investigated for possible collusion and corruption. The parliamentary hearing is still ongoing and it would appear that the Ministry of Finance, led by Gaspar, may have opted for a short term gain in the last phase of privatisation, which in turn has caused significant long term pain to Portuguese tax payers, consumers and small and medium enterprises as energy costs in Portugal are amongst the highest in the EU.
Vítor Gaspar is married with Sílvia Luz and has three daughters: Catarina, Marta and Madalena. He is first cousin of Francisco Louçã, former leader of Left Bloc. In May 2013 he revealed he is a supporter of S.L. Benfica.
