In October 2012, the blog “Aventar” published a video collecting all the statements made by Pedro Passos Coelho before the 2011 parliamentary elections, in which he promised that he would not increase taxes or reduce pensions in order to solve the serious crisis in public finances to combat the situation in which Portugal already found itself. was sinking (and what led the government of José Sócrates to hand the country over to the Troika in May 2011).
The video immediately went viral and what attracted the most attention was the absolutely categorical way in which the then leader of the PSD had for months, using the most diverse formulations, shown that he was completely sure of himself in the certainty that he would be able to tackle the crisis without raising taxes or cutting pensions or salaries. At one point he even said that the PS’s accusation that cuts would be made in the 13th month was “nonsense”. The promises followed: “The tax burden that has been defined is more than necessary, it is not necessary”; “those who suffer today and do not know how to defend themselves will always find a friendly ally in me and in the future PSD government”; “We must value the word more and more so that we can believe it when it is spoken”; “I hope that as a future prime minister I will never naively tell the country that we do not know the situation. We have an idea of how things stand.”
On 5 June 2011, the PSD, with Passos Coelho in charge, won the parliamentary elections with 38.65% and quickly formed a coalition with Paulo Portas’ CDS-PP, which had won 11.7%. And that’s what we saw.
The average value of pensions fell by around 10% between 2011 and 2014, reaching around 1.5 million pensioners; in the public services, holiday and Christmas bonuses were reduced, and all salaries above 675 were reduced (reductions of up to 12%); Private sector workers were also subject to cuts to holiday and Christmas benefits (those earning more than the minimum wage, the progression of which was frozen). At the same time, everyone, whether they worked for the state or in the private sector, was subjected to huge increases in the tax burden, especially at the IRS (creating the famous 3.5% surcharge). The maximum VAT rate went from 23% to 25%.
And then, in 2013, the government started to ease the pressure. In 2014, the 13th and 14th months returned. The country voted on October 4, 2015. This time PSD and CDS presented themselves as allies. And despite losing more than 700,000 votes, they managed to win the elections and defeat the PS again, just as in 2011. Passos and Portas only did not form a government because, in a move never seen before in Portuguese politics has been seen, left The majority in parliament supported the second largest party, the PS, led by António Costa, to form a government.
Years earlier, in 2005, José Sócrates had given the PS the first absolute majority in its history. During the campaign, he left a solemn promise on billboards across the country: “Goal: Restore 150,000 jobs.” In 2005, five million Portuguese had work; in 2006 this number was the same; in 2007 the same; in 2008 it rose to 5.115 million; and in 2009 it dropped to 4.9 million. In other words: the working population has not only not increased, but has even decreased. The unemployment rate started at 7.6% (in 2005) and ended at 9.4% (in 2009). And on September 27, 2009, the country voted again.
Result: PS won again. It is true that he lost half a million votes and the absolute majority, from 45% in 2005 to 36.55% four years later. But he won. And above all, the PSD has not benefited from anything. From one election to the next, he received fewer than a thousand votes (964 to be exact). Sócrates formed a government again and would fall in 2011 due to national bankruptcy, when Parliament failed him again on a PEC (Stability and Growth Program). Incredibly, the PS was back in power four years later, after the 2011-2015 ‘interregnum’ led by Passos.
So far, António Costa’s main promises have not been fulfilled: a GP for every user on the SNS; and end, by April 25, 2024, with “all situations of housing shortage”, building 26,000 houses for 26,000 families.
In 2016, the number of users without a GP was around one million, today it is 1.6 million; As for housing, there will be 88 thousand families without a decent home. The SNS is going through a crisis like never before and house prices have risen far above the inflation rate. It is already known that Costa will not vote in the next parliamentary elections. But in the meantime, opinion polls emerged showing that the PS, with a new leader, Pedro Nuno Santos or José Luís Carneiro, could defeat the PSD again.
Source: DN
