The crisis in Portugal, a country that is experiencing strikes, as in France: garbage collectors, hospitals, civil servants… Decryption with José-Manuel Lamarque and his guest, Ana Navarro Pedro.
Focus today in European microphone on Portugal, with Ana Navarro Pedro, Portuguese correspondent journalist in Paris, notably correspondent for the weekly Visao.
franceinfo: As in the United Kingdom, as in France, Portugal is in strikes and demonstrations?
Ana Navarro Pedro: That’s true, but for different reasons in our country, like in the UK, with problems related to inflation, purchasing power, the cost of living in the country, so strikes since February, they are followed at 85%, as a rule. In public and private service. Public service, it will tell you something, garbage collectors, hospitals, schools, and what pleases the Portuguese, the financial distribution sector.
But concerning the cost of living, the Portuguese government has decided, as in Spain, to lower the VAT?
On food products, yes, because indeed, the highest inflation in Portugal is on food products: 21% increase over one year. However, salaries are not very high in Portugal. Moreover, a study by the Bank of Portugal has even shown that for university graduates, salaries since 2006 have fallen by around a little less than 150 euros per month.
The question of housing too…
The question of housing, about one in two families in Portugal has difficulty finding housing today, and also feeding itself. So that is what explains the success of these demonstrations.
With a left-wing government…
On the left, with an absolute majority, who was considered and extolled as a magician. Maybe he lost his magic touch. He is accused by the opposition and by the population of immobility, and of not taking adequate measures. The government first followed what Europe and the United States were saying. That is to say, inflation will not last, and will not be very high.
Then when it lasted and was very high, the government said: “Ah yes, but we can’t increase wages, because that will further increase inflation”. And now, the Portuguese are saying yes, but we haven’t increased salaries, and inflation has really increased a lot.
It’s discontent, but Portugal and Spain stood out from the European Union last year, concerning energy, they said: “We are not going to increase the energy…” And there, the Portuguese government is precisely relaunching this derogation, facing the European Union for energy?
They started the process in January, because this derogation ends in May, and they are asking for another year of derogation, which means that, for example, the KWh in Portugal is around 0.14 euro cents, in France under the government shield, it is still at 0.18 cents.
And still financial scandals in Portugal…
Yes, there is a lot of criticism on a certain tax evasion in Portugal, of the richest…
When we talk about the richest, Portugal is precisely going to abolish golden visas. You explain them to us…
Golden visas are a measure that was taken in 2012, when Portugal was in the throes of the very serious sovereign debt crisis, and under a very serious austerity policy, to attract wealthy investors to Portugal. Against an investment of 1 million euros in real estate, businesses, job creation, they were entitled to a Schengen visa. That’s what we called golden visas.
Portugal is going to put an end to this practice now, which has nevertheless brought in almost 7 billion euros to the country, it is not nothing, but it is going to put an end to it because it weighs, according to the government , a huge weight on the real estate market.
Is that why the Portuguese can’t find accommodation?
Not only, because it’s a good excuse from the government. But those who cannot find accommodation, they cannot buy the same accommodation as those who have 1 million to invest in the country. So the problem is also all the foreigners, many French people moreover, who buy all the vacant empty accommodation, to make Airbnb, accommodation for tourism, etc.
These golden visas have nothing to do with the French pensioners who went to Portugal and who were exempt from taxes for ten years. Does it still work?
It still works, within the framework of the European Union…
You reassure a lot of people. Another problem in Portugal, the closure of local shops?
Shops, clothing, obviously 80% of families have reduced their spending on clothing, stationery, supermarkets too, because it is difficult to eat. But paradoxically, and very curiously, bookstores escape this berezina, and the number of books sold has increased.
Fernando Pessoa always present, the great Portuguese poet…
Literature is always a refuge in times of crisis…
He had written a very beautiful poem, The bell tower of my villageit was the one in his neighborhood…
Exactly.
We can learn from this focus on Portugal that the social situation is also deteriorating there…
It degrades in the Portuguese way, without excess.