With focus never far from Portugal’s financial situation, news today has returned to the Plan B that Brussels is ‘demanding’ - and which Portugal’s Socialist leaders are saying ‘doesn’t exist’.
Cutting through the verbiage, the fact that President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has called yet another Council of State - this time for July - is extremely relevant.
At the new president’s first Council of State earlier this month, European Central Bank boss Mário Draghi “congratulated” the government on its decision to “prepare additional measures” of austerity.
His message was clear. Whether PS leaders liked to admit it or not, a Plan B was not only required, it was expected fast.
Then came news of a second Council of State to be convened on the request of President Marcelo, hotly proceded by a report on the latest post-troika evaluation by the European Commission.
Bit by bit, the pressure on PS leaders to rethink their anti-austerity plans is being amplified.
Monday’s headline in tabloid Correio da Manhã refers not just to the cut of €1 billion, but to Brussels saying ‘no’ to the increase in national minimum wage, and to a return to the 35-hour working week.
The CM story explains Brussels wants a 0.6% haircut on the country’s spending projections - not the 0.1-0.2% the executive has said it ‘might’ be prepared to concede.
And the story gets worse: minimum wage increases from 505 euros to 600 by 2019 “are not in line with the macroeconomic perspective”; the 35-hour working week is a “concern” and pension plans should be “altered”.
The tortuous banking situation - not least the intrigues playing out with BPI and outgoing major shareholder Isabel dos Santos - is adding to the mounting pressure, with left-wing parties propping up Portugal’s PS government in no mood for any concessions.
For now, the next ‘crux moment’ seems to be April 21 when CM says the Council of Ministers will discuss the Stability Programme.
It is then that any Plan B is likely to be introduced - and it is then that the fireworks with PCP communists and Bloco de Esquerda allies could truly begin.
Article by kind permission of http://portugalresident.com
Comments
If former mininsters of finance did correctely their jobs Portugal should not need a PLAN B today. Conclusion: they have what they want, don't they ????
Like the statuts are now EU can only work when the responsible leaders have enough statemenship and decency to try to reach consensusses over all matters. The best example to show they don't is the disgusting way how the refugee problem has been undertaken. That's unfortunately the EU reality today !!!!!!
And there lies the problem with the EU. "Everyone" won't play by the rules because they all have different economies, cultures, languages and needs. And it has long been obvious to the thickest person that it would never work.
But how you can say that the less developed states run a country mile when "challenged to take in a few foreigners". Have you not heard of Greece?
It is intellectually weak to argue that Brussels Oligarchs are running the show when it is the failing EU states that continue to have unelected oligarchic elites - often behaving criminally as well as anti-socially - holding them back from becoming true EU partners. And the civil service in Brussels .. is staffed by the brightest and best from each EU state. If someone important's mummy's boy has been sent to Brussels - whether as a politician or a civil servant - then that country is the loser.
That said the Migrant Crisis is actually a splendid mirror on which are the more developed EU states. Showing clearly how the less developed are happy to parasite on the developed EU states for work and benefits but when then challenged to take in a few foreigners themselves - run a country mile.
Interesting though that now all the developed states have erected barriers to entry ....
This message is loud and clear - we are not a part of a democracy, we are a part of an unelected oligarchy. We can get rid of Prime Ministers but whatever we do, we cannot get rid of the oligarchs in Brussels.
Many people support the idea of a united Europe, but find unacceptable the lack of accountability in Brussels .
But it seems Brussels would rather let Portugal slide into the abyss than prop up the economy with more cash.
As if they think that the money would all disappear into off shore bank accounts somewhere.
The bottom line is that unless Northern Europe is willing to support the economies of the peripheral countries, there is no way that the Euro, and the European experiment, can survive.
Offshore accounts or not.