Journalists complain it’s hard work following Portugal’s energetic president Marcelo. This week has been no exception. From a visit to former colony Cape Verde, he has jetted off to Senegal - to be the first Portuguese head of state to visit the country, linked to Portugal through the Discoveries, since the April 25 revolution.
A highlight of the trip will be the delivery of 162 ambulances equipped by a Portuguese firm.
Doctors syndicates have called a two-day national strike for May 10-11.
The reasons given are “lack of agreement with the health ministry after a year of negotiations, and its failure to comply with established promises - namely to pay overtime and open placement programmes”:
According to householders, the air smells of “a kind of burnt rubber and sulphur” - and they hate it.
There is also an issue with dust - purportedly belched out of chimneys at the plant run by Cimpor (cement manufacturer) at Alhandra, near Vila Franca da Xira (district of Lisbon).
More than 500 million euros in dividends paid by businesses recently privatised in Portugal are due to leave this country.
News website Abrilabril - which claims to look at current events with an independent eye - says the real figure is almost certainly higher as “only stakeholders with more than 2% capital are obliged to communicate their identities”.
Talk of the “French Invasion” in terms of property investment has suddenly turned to “the Turkish discovery of Portugal” - bringing with it as much as €300 million in investment, just this year.
Media reports are highlighting just how attractive Portugal has become for the country that has been struggling for decades to get EU membership, and which is now as far from achieving it as it ever was.
Pushing forwards with State bank CGD’s recovery plan - agreed with Brussels - the institution’s new president Paulo Macedo has warned that additional cuts to staff and branches could well be in the wings, particularly if targets are not met.
The warning comes as populations everywhere are protesting to the closure of branches as the bank struggles to shake off its legacy of debts.
In its annual report published today, the European Central Bank shows itself to be distinctly ‘sniffy’ over Portugal’s lucky sanctions escape for failing to keep to budgetary guidelines in 2015.
According to Britain’s Express, “Spain and Portugal shouldn’t have been let off the hook” as the strict European ‘economy rules’ are there for a reason: to prevent a financial crisis.
Almaraz - the purported ‘time-bomb’ that environmentalists are fighting to shut down on the banks of the Tejo river - has suffered two new malfunctions in the space of three days, though authorities insist that the situation is stable.
The incidents - the last of which happened on Monday - have been highlighted by Iberia’s Anti-Nuclear Movement and the Portuguese association “Ecologists in Action”.
