Yearbook 2006
Portugal. According to
CountryAAH, Portugal got a new president in January when Aníbal Cavaco Silva, candidate for the bourgeois, opposition
Social Democratic Party, overcame five left-wing candidates
already in the first round of the presidential election.
Cavaco Silva, at the age of 66, was the country's prime
minister between 1985 and 1995. Second in the election came
the independent socialist Manuel Alegre, followed by the
third Mário Soares, 81-year-old former president (1986-96)
and former prime minister of social government in the 1970s
and 1980s.
Outgoing President Jorge Sampaio had held the office for
two five-year terms and, in accordance with the
Constitution, could not run for a third term.
Cavaco Silva was formally installed as president on March
9 and then became the country's first bourgeois president
since the re-establishment of democracy in Portugal in 1974.
The new president is an educated economist and as prime
minister had made himself known for far-reaching market
economy reforms. He went to elections with promises of a
better economy in Portugal, which was struggling with
excessive budget deficits. In his installation speech, he
said that the biggest challenge for Portugal in the future
was to accelerate the stagnant economy. He also promised to
cooperate with the country's social government for political
stability.
In January 2011, President Cavaco Silva was re-elected
with 53% of the vote.
In March 2011, the Democratic government sought to adopt
a new "Growth and Stability Package" in light of the
bankruptcy of the country. The package would have resulted
in even more drastic government cuts and tax increases, but
the opposition chose to put a distrust agenda on the
government, which fell by 97 votes to 133. The conservative
"social democracy" chose to vote with the opposition,
thereby bringing the government to a standstill. The
president then postponed new elections for June. Socrates
continued as the head of a temporary government and in April
had to apply for EU financial aid. Portugal thus became the
third country after Ireland and Greece to go bankrupt during
the crisis. However, the EU stated that Portugal needed to
make even more severe cuts than the government had fallen on
in March if it needed EU support. In mid-May, the EU adopted
a $ 78 billion aid package And a few days later, the IMF
decided to contribute another 26 billion. € under the same
conditions as the EU.
The June election became a disaster for the ruling
Socialist Party, falling 8.5% to 28%. Even worse, for the
left wing alliance BE, which went 4.6% to 5.2%. In contrast,
the conservative Social Democracy PSD went up 9.6% to 38.7%,
just as the conservative CDS-PP went. After the election,
PSD and CDS-PP formed a majority government with 132 out of
Parliament's 230 seats behind it. Several pointed to the
sensibility of forming a broad unity government where the
Socialist Party also joined, but that was not possible. PSD
chairman Pedro Passos Coelho became new prime minister. In
July, the rating downgraded Moody's country government junk
status to junk status. Fitch also downgrades to junk in
November and Standard & Poors in January 12.
In November, the trade union will conduct a one-week
general strike in protest of the government's economic
policy. In March 2012, public servants carry out a 24-hour
general strike in protest of the government's amendment of
labor laws, public sector redundancies and a 20% cut in
wages.
The new government was the most reactionary since the
days of the military dictatorship. Coelho stated that access
to abortion would be abolished and the same would apply to
marriage between gays. The government started to fire within
the public sector and announced that up to 100,000 public
servants would be fired. The remaining were cut their wages
by 20% in 2012. At the same time, pensions and health and
education expenses were cut. VAT was raised and a number of
public companies were privatized. This included companies in
the energy sector, airline TAP, banks and TV channels. The
support period was reduced from 18 to 12 months. The cutback
policy was so fierce,
While others were cut back, the government provided $ 3
billion. € in support of the country's largest bank
Millenium BCP in June 2012. In November 2012, a new general
strike against the government's economic policy was carried
out and hundreds of thousands demonstrated in front of
Parliament. The peaceful demonstration was attacked by
police and 48 protesters were injured.
The government's downsizing policy caused the country's
economy to collapse, and so did the government's revenue.
While the debt in 2011 when the EU aid package was adopted
made up 107% of the country's economy, it had grown to 128%
in 2013 - mainly as a result of the fall in GDP. In the same
period, unemployment increased from 11% to 17.7%. GDP growth
in 2012 was negative by 3%.
In 2011, the government had accepted the EU's demand that
the state budget deficit in 2013 be below 3%. In November
2013, the government implemented new layoffs within the
public sector, as well as lowering wages and pensions. The
contraction of the country's public sector was dramatic. In
2005, 747,880 were public servants; at the end of 2013, the
figure was 563,595 - a decrease of 25%. 19% of the country's
population then lived below the poverty line.
Portugal was a fast-paced country where refugees could
flee to Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Australia or Northern
Europe. This was first and foremost the young people who had
little opportunity to work in Portugal.
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