Politicians ‘win big’. Or they are “privileged and full of blessings”. Phrases that have taken root in society and prevented government parties from touching the salaries of politicians. And even reverse the 5% austerity imposed on them for 12 years, still under the tutelage of the socialist government of José Sócrates and at a time when Portugal was already in financial difficulties, which led to the arrival of the Troika.
University professor Viriato Soromenho-Marques has no doubts that this 5% cut should have ended just as we exited the adjustment process, as has happened for the rest of the population. “There is a lot of demagoguery regarding the issue of politicians’ salaries,” he says.
The academic subscribes to the idea that there is a deep sense in Portuguese society that politicians are privileged, even though A plus B proves that their salaries are not high. “This feeling has taken root in Portuguese society because public opinion has already internalized that there is some kind of bonus of politics.” Bonuses that understand outside of salaries.
But Viriato Soromenho-Marques claims that “the right attitude would be to replace the salaries of political office holders and classify them according to their functions”. It is in this sense that he argues that in the context of public policy planning it “would make sense to think about the remuneration of politicians that takes into account the complexity of their functions and duties”. What would apply to executive functions – ministers, state secretaries and mayors, for example – and not to deputies, who are “on an equal footing”.
And he draws attention to the “terrible costs of incompetence in public service” and the costs of involvement in politics. “Stimulating competence can be done with a higher reward process, which must also be transversal for top officials in public administration. Otherwise, the most competent will flee to the private sector,” he says. Moreover, it is a way to prevent corruption.
The recruitment of Paulo Macedo, former minister and current president of CGD, as Director-General of Taxation in 1993, at the invitation of the then Minister of Finance Manuela Ferreira Leite, is given as a “good example” of how paying well can be more productive for the state. “It made $25,000 a month, the salary I brought from the private sector, but it gave millions to the state because it got a lot of people who didn’t pay taxes to do that.”
Viriato Soromenho-Marques admits, however, that with the rise of parties like Chega, which “is based on the radicalization of a trend of transversal demagogy”, which also exists in parties like the PCP and BE, it is more difficult to take measures to improve politicians’ salaries.
Mayors call for end of court
The demand to end the 5% discount on the salaries of political office holders came from the National Association of Municipalities, in the opinion it has drawn up on the national budget for 2023, the DN reported this week.
In an “incomprehensible and unfair way”, the proposed law on the state budget “will go ahead without reversing the 5% cut in the salaries of political office holders, which at the time of the troika under the economic and financial assistance program to Portugal has been introduced and maintained today in the remuneration of local elected officials,” writes the ANMP, chaired by the socialist Luísa Salgueiro, in the document sent to the deputies.
One day was enough for the Minister of Cohesion to come and destroy the mayors’ claim. Ana Abrunhosa emphasized that the OE 2023 is distributing 400 million euros more to the municipalities than the previous one, but does not make it to the end of the reduction in mayors’ salaries. “We understand, in the case of the cut in politicians’ salaries, that it would be maintained. At a time when families are all enacting restrictions, we thought it was not time to lift this cut. We think it is time is for the most needy families. It does not mean that the claim is not legitimate at a different time and in a different business cycle,” said Ana Abrunhosa in an interview with Lusa.
The reversal of these cuts had already been promised by the prime minister in the summer of 2019, in an interview with Expresso. “I am confident that this last cut will disappear in the next term. I think it is important to restore normalcy to the remuneration framework for politicians too,” said António Costa. At the time, he was sympathetic to the then PSD leader Rui Rio.
This time, Chega and Bloco de Esquerda sided with the government by rejecting the end of the 5% austerity measures, and only the PCP was in favor.
What salaries do politicians have?
The remuneration of political office holders is calculated based on the salary of the President of the Republic, the highest magistrate in the nation. The tenant of Belém, in the case of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has a basic monthly salary of more than 7,600 euros, which, with the 5% discount imposed on him, amounts to around 7,400 euros.
The second figure of the state, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, who is now Augusto Santos Silva, earns 80% of the president’s salary, ie almost 5800 euros gross, already with the respective reduction.
The prime minister, now António Costa, follows with 75% of the salary of the head of state, which is 5,400 euros. Ministers take home about 4700 euros gross and the mayor of Lisbon, the highest paid mayor of all, has a gross salary of 3900 euros. The deputies are still at a lower level, with 3600 euros gross. According to INE, the average salary in Portugal is 1361 euros.
Politicians’ salaries, like everyone else, are subject to IRS and Social Security discounts.
Source: DN
