The deputies will debate the state of the nation on Thursday, at the end of a parliamentary year marked by the return of inflation, contestation, in the streets, in justice, in education or in health care.
Seven themes are analysed, from social protest to the problems of the cost of living and inflation, from strikes in education, health care, justice to the new-old house price problem.
Social protest is growing and trade unions are demanding better living conditions
Civil protest has grown in recent months and unions are threatening not to give up in the foreseeable future, with the main demand for wage and pension increases to respond to the rise in the cost of living due to inflation.
According to official data, the number of strike notices communicated to the Ministry of Labor in the first quarter of the year increased by almost 150% compared to the same period last year, to 489, and in public administration by 113%, totaling 264 .
In March, a national civil servants’ strike, called by the Common Front of Trade Unions, was held with strong support in various sectors of the state, such as schools and hospitals. The CGTP has already promoted two national struggles this year, with strikes, demonstrations and concentrations in different companies and regions of the country and the year was also marked by several strikes at CP – Comboios de Portugal, which caused disruptions in the circulation of trains.
Inflation returned and forced the government to take action
Inflation entered the lexicon of Portuguese households, who were forced by rising prices to cut budgets, as well as politics, with the government launching several support measures.
The rate of inflation is slowing, but prices remain well above 2021 levels, making controlling them one of the biggest economic challenges by taking longer than expected. In June, it slowed to 3.4%.
Since April last year, year-on-year food inflation has been above 10%, reaching 21.5% in February this year, prompting the government to launch the temporary measure to reduce VAT on a basket of food products to 0% . The most recent data from INE shows that annual food inflation slowed to 9.4% in May and to 8.57% in June (as of May, 40% of products analyzed by INE are now VAT exempt).
In June, however, food and non-alcoholic beverages and restaurants and hotels were still the main contributors to the change in the rate of inflation, while transport and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels were the largest contributors. .
PRR payments exceeded ME2,000, but execution remains below expectations
Payments to beneficiaries of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) have already exceeded €2,000 million since June, with implementation still falling short of expectations, but the executive is making sure there are no problems.
The government had set a target of achieving 32% implementation of the PRR this year, a target which, following the request for reprogramming of the plan to Brussels, the Presidency Minister, Mariana Vieira da Silva, explained that it will be revised, in view of the increase in the allocation, which should amount to EUR 22,000 million, above the initial amount of EUR 16,644 million.
Despite the fact that the government of António Costa guarantees that Portugal is one of the states with the highest implementation of the PRR and that the plan will be fully implemented by the deadline, the Public Finance Council underlined that the implementation was “well below expectations continues. the Banco de Portugal (BdP) was less optimistic about the targets and Brussels already warned that the deadlines will not be extended.
A year of strikes and court delays
Justice is experiencing a year marked by successive strikes by judicial officials, who have postponed thousands of diligent and procedural acts in the courts and the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) services, creating a climate of permanent unrest by the failure to act of a response from the Department of Justice to the claims of that profession.
The government was also widely criticized by judges, prosecutors and lawyers for the increased bureaucracy of the new regulation of electronic file distribution. He had previously been attacked by the opposition for the delay in resolving this diploma and the implications it had for prescribing crimes in media trials, such as Operation Marquês, involving former Prime Minister José Sócrates, as well as for a perceived lack of commitment for the fight against corruption.
Tension in the courts rose even more this month, with the operation against the PSD and its former president Rui Rio on suspicion of misuse of parliamentary funds in the party. The Social Democrats attacked the “disproportion” of the resources used and Rio denounced a political interference by the MP, with the PS defending the former leader of the PSD and admitting to changing the law, while the other parties put pressure on the judicial authorities.
School year of protests and strikes since December
In education, on the other hand, the last academic year, which was expected to return to normal and focused on the recovery of learning after the covid-19 pandemic, was marked by strong opposition from teachers.
With almost uninterrupted strikes and protests from December until the final tests and exams, teachers have once again pushed for an old claim they now seem reluctant to give up, but which the government has already shut down: the restoration of the length of service that was not counted during the two career freeze periods.
However, the sector continues to struggle with the severe shortage of teachers, a problem that will continue to grow in the coming years, as with an aging class, the number of teachers retiring is not offset by the number of young people leaving education. And the ministry held successive business meetings with the unions throughout the school year to discuss solutions, without coming to an agreement.
Health, a sector in difficulty and with strikes announced
The National Health Service (SNS) is already costing around $14 billion but continues to struggle to retain doctors and nurses and respond to the growing number of users waiting for consultations and surgeries.
Despite annual budget reinforcements and increased hospital production, the Council for Public Finance warned that the number of users on the waiting list for the first consultation will increase by 11% in 2022, while the response capacity of surgical activity deteriorated. In addition, hospitals face shortages of doctors in some specialties, such as obstetrics/gynecology and paediatrics, forcing emergency and maternity care to rotate in some regions.
The lack of specialists is also visible in primary health care, where nearly 1.6 million people do not have a GP, a number that has been rising steadily in recent years.
To the growing resistance of the doctors and nurses unions with several implemented and announced strikes, the Ministry of Health has responded with the figures of the increase in hospital production, but also with measures for primary health care, such as linking the pay of family doctors with performance in Family Health Units.
Housing, a new-old problem for many Portuguese
The housing crisis is not new, but it has worsened over the past year, leading the government to take a package of measures to respond to the emergency, some of which are strongly contested in parliament and on the streets.
The executive branch approved support for home loans and rents, which are already in effect. The remaining measures of Mais Habitação were discussed in April in the Assembly of the Republic, in a long and contentious process, by opposition and representatives of the sector, which brought thousands of people to the streets.
From forcibly renting vacant properties to suspending new permits for local housing or limiting new rent increases, the government package, which has an estimated cost of €900 million but should be higher, has been widely criticized. because the income support will cost 430 million euros, instead of the initially estimated 200 million.
Source: DN
