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The future in his hands?
Updated: 21-Sep-2012
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A Council of State meeting convened by the Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva is taking place today (September 21) at 5pm in the Belém Palace in Lisbon, his official residence.
It is hoped that the meeting, to which the Minister of Finance Vítor Gaspar and other senior State advisors were also called, will bring some resolution regarding the controversy surrounding the Government’s decision to increase the workers’ monthly contributions to Social Security by seven percentage points.
According to television channel SIC Notícias, the Minister of Finance may even back down or present an alternative measure to the Taxa Social Única (TSU) increase, an announcement that triggered a wave of protests across the country on Saturday (September 15).
There is even speculation that the President of Portugal could go as far as dissolving the government (the last time a dissolution of government happened was in 2004 when the then President Jorge Sampaio dissolved the Durão Barroso government).
The nationwide protest organised by the citizens’ movement “Que se lixe a troika - Queremos as nossas vidas” was the largest protest in Portugal since the 25 de Abril Carnation Revolution in 1974, which freed the country from the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar.
More than half-a-million protesters took to the streets in 40 cities across the country to rally against the Government’s austerity measures.
Organised by a group of around 30 citizens, the movement went viral on Facebook, with people from all walks of life protesting on the streets of Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Faro, and other Portuguese cities, against the measures announced by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho on September 7 (see last week’s edition).
Many were armed with signs calling the Prime Minister a ‘thief’ and urging troika to leave the country. Public and private workers, unemployed people, union representatives, pensioners, students, doctors, public figures and even supporters of the two parties that form the PSD/CDS-PP coalition government came together to protest against the increase of seven percentage points of the monthly contributions to Social Security, one of the most punishing austerity measures. Many said that this was the first time they had ever taken part in a protest, while entire families claimed to be fighting for a better future.
In the Algarve, it is estimated that the rallies gathered around 1,000 people in Portimão and 4,000 people in Faro. According to the organisers of the movement, around 100,000 people crowded the Avenida dos Aliados in Porto, whilst half-a-million people marched from Praça José Fontana to Praça de Espanha in Lisbon. Those in Lisbon were particularly vehement with their protest outside of the Portuguese headquarters of the International Monetary Fund, throwing tomatoes, bottles and fireworks at the building.
After the end of the official protest, the demonstrations carried on throughout the evening outside the Portuguese Parliament, with four protesters being arrested following confrontation with the police (one of the protesters has already been handed down a one-year suspended sentence). Apart from these incidents, the protests were peaceful.
Nuno Ramos de Almeida, one of the organisers of the movement, told news agency Lusa that the group was planning a watch during the Council of State.
The goal is to pressure the Government to “reverse these measures”, he said, adding that they “never dreamed of the protest reaching these proportions”.
The day after the protest, CDS-PP leader and Minister of State and Public Affairs Paulo Portas broke his long silence and said he approved the increase of the Taxa Social Única to prevent a “Government crisis”.
Still, protesters will be taking to the streets of Lisbon once again on September 29, in yet another protest organised by the CGTP workers’ union.
“Black week” for realtors and car dealers
Real estate agents are talking about a ‘black week’ to describe the immediate decrease in the number of people looking to buy a new property after the Government announced new austerity measures on September 7, according to online newspaper Dinheiro Vivo.
Saying that he doesn’t recall a darker week for realtors, Luís Lima, the president of the Portuguese Association of Real Estate Companies (APEMIP), said that the market was bad enough already, but that it suddenly became much worse. A survey made with APEMIP’s associates confirmed the president’s assumptions: “The number of potential buyers dropped by 50%,” said Luís Lima.
According to APEMIP, there are no doubts that the Government’s measures discouraged many people from buying a property.
The decrease in the number of buyers is also affecting the car market, with the Portuguese Car Dealers Association (ACAP) revealing that several deals were cancelled after the Government announced a special tax on luxury vehicles.
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