Europe Elects: Portugal | Parliament Election 2019

This is the YouTube service of Europe Elects. Poll aggregation and election analysis for countries in the European Union. Europe Elects introduces the main political parties ahead of the 06 of October 2019 parliament election in Portugal.

Politico: Portugal’s opposition woes

Unlike almost everywhere else in Europe, Portugal’s mainstream conservatives face no credible threat from populists on the right. Instead, they are split into three rival parties defined by personal rather than ideological differences. [...]

Rio’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) remains the largest on the right, but polls show it heading for its worst-ever European Parliament result. Its support languishes below 25 percent, 15 points behind Costa’s Socialist Party (PS). [...]

Rio eventually won a confidence motion by 75 to 50 votes in the party’s National Council just before 4 a.m. but only after a 10-hour debate marked by mudslinging that's unlikely to win over disgruntled voters. [...]

The right still suffers from association with austerity policies introduced under PSD Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho in response to the eurozone debt crisis. Since gaining power in November 2015, Costa has overseen steady economic growth that’s cut unemployment by half.

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Jacobin Magazine: The Portuguese Myth

Portugal asked for a bailout in 2011, one year after Greece, and from the beginning, it was treated as “the good student.” “Portugal is not Greece” was repeated over and over again. And it’s true. From the end of 2014 the European Central Bank, through the Bank of Portugal, was allowed to buy Portuguese public debt bonds directly, in a form of quantitative easing. This had two positive outcomes: it lowered the interest rates on the debt, and a part of the interest rates paid by the Portuguese government could thus be paid to the Bank of Portugal, therefore re-injecting money into the Portuguese economy. The European institutions never allowed the Syriza-led government in Greece to resort to such quantitative easing. [...]

The agreement allowed the left-wing parties to vote against some of the government’s measures, since they are not subject to the same discipline as in a real coalition. They insisted that this was not their government and that it wouldn’t solve the country’s fundamental problems, at the same time as they tried to answer the popular hopes of an end to the most damaging austerity measures. [...]

This is no miracle: it is the combination of internal factors (small income growth, a shift of the narrative around austerity and, therefore, in consumption patterns) and most importantly, external political factors. Not only do part of the European institutions support this government, but the country has also benefited from the political crisis in the Middle East, in the sense that it has driven a fall in the price of oil (an important factor for an import-based economy) and pushed tourism away from this region in favor of destinations like Portugal.

If we look closely, we can see other problems with this government. The troika labor laws were left untouched, collective bargaining has almost vanished, and precarity is on the rise. A study by the Observatório das Desigualdades places the real unemployment rate at 17.5 percent — much less than the 28 percent in 2013 but far above the official government numbers (8.5 percent). Almost all the new jobs that have been created are precarious. Public services are crumbling: both health and education are heavily underfunded and on the verge of collapse. The Portuguese banking system is a ticking time bomb, with more banks bailed out with public money but not under public control, leaving it more vulnerable to shifts at the European center than in 2008. The central question of the debt has in fact disappeared from public debate.

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BBC4 Profile: Antonio Guterres

On Profile this week, we look at the life and career of the world's top diplomat - the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

When he opened the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, the 68 year old former Portuguese Prime Minister warned the world was in danger, "in pieces" and needed putting back together again.

So, who is he and how does he plan to go about it?

Mark Coles talks to childhood friends, political colleagues past and present - even Portugal's President - who help explain the events and personal tragedies that have shaped Guterres and led him to take on arguably the most difficult job on the planet.

Floods, cancer, Catholicism, chocolate and cheese...everything you need to know about new UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on Profile this week.

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