Their economies are bad, their debts are suffocating and many of their young people are out of work. Spain, Greece and Portugal face similar problems and their citizens are equally bitter – some just show it more than others.
While Greeks are clashing violently with police on the streets and Spaniards have been holding – generally peaceful – protest camps across the country, the Portuguese have just watched their new government push through harsh austerity measures with barely a whimper.
Over the coming months, the Portuguese will be paying more at the supermarket thanks to an increase in VAT on some products. They will earn less due to changes to income tax benefits. Civil servants will get no salary increases. Pensions will be trimmed. And, as an additional gift, much of Portuguese workers’ annual Christmas bonus – equal to one month’s pay – will be swallowed by a one-off tax.
All this on the back of austerity measures already imposed this year and last by the previous Socialist government, which collapsed in March and was replaced last month by a centre-right coalition promising, not less austerity, but more. More even than demanded by an €78-billion bailout package agreed with the EU and the IMF.
No one in Portugal is happy about the current state of affairs or the additional economic pain that surely lies around the corner, but the Portuguese in general have been far less vocal about expressing their displeasure than the Spaniards or the Greeks. There have been protests, yes, and in March a youth movement sprang up in Lisbon taking its cue from the Arab Spring revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East. But the protests were largely peaceful and the movement failed to take root or gain the international attention that, a couple of months later, focused the world’s gaze on Spain as young people demonstrated and camped out in city squares under the banner of the 15-M movement. Portugal will undoubtedly see more protests over the coming months – unions are already planning them – but it seems unlikely that they will dramatically influence the government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho who trounced the Socialists in the June 5 general election.
Passos Coelho has interpreted, perhaps correctly, his strong result at the ballot box as a mandate for change and he has had few qualms about publicly acknowledging that things will have to get worse before they can get better.
Is this just a case of Portuguese practicality? Do the arguments of mainstream economists (embodied in organizations such as the IMF) that small government, lower public spending and fewer social benefits will lead to increased competitiveness and long-term growth sit more comfortably in the Portuguese psyche than in the minds of Greeks and Spaniards. Perhaps.
But it should not be forgotten that the Portuguese are accustomed to hard times. While Spain and Greece were experiencing growth rates in excess of 3 percent for much of the last decade, the Portuguese economy was stagnant. Portugal has been suffering its own economic malaise longer than the others, muddling through until it succumbed to the debt crisis that swept across the euro-zone. Trying a different course of action, even if that means short-term pain, may therefore be more palatable.
And, let’s not forget, that this is the country of Fado, a music filled with loss, pain and mourning. It has long been stereotyped as one of Europe’s most unassuming and introverted nations, a place where the past is gazed upon with a sense of melancholy, where being sad about something is part of the daily rhythm of life. The Portuguese have plenty to be sad about at the current time, but they are surely hoping (quietly) for a happier future.
Andrew Eatwell is a freelance journalist co-editor of Iberosphere, a website dedicated to comment and analysis on Spain and Portugal.
Hay 7 Comentarios
Pues eso. So much for the stupid ethnical homogeneity they are seeking around Brussels...
Publicado por: puma ferrari | 29/09/2011 17:58:53
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Publicado por: christian louboutin | 27/07/2011 10:25:37
João Banderirinha is right, I'm sure you don't know any portuguese.
Publicado por: anomino | 07/07/2011 13:21:29
It will be interesting to see if sparks don't eventually begin to fly over in Portugal. The news today certainly would make one think so.
Do everything the 'market' says and the new god rewards you with a trash bond rating.
Time to tell them to stuff it and start making your own towels once again I'd say!
Publicado por: Troy | 07/07/2011 0:14:50
Keep on commenting about Spain and so. Nothing to see here for you man, your prose is full of stereotyping bullshit: "this is the country of Fado, a music filled with loss, pain and mourning. It has long been stereotyped as one of Europe’s most unassuming and introverted nations, a place where the past is gazed upon with a sense of melancholy". Not this kind of shit again common...
Publicado por: João Banderirinha | 04/07/2011 16:38:32
Saramago once commented that one difference between Spaniards and the Portuguese is that the former are more dramatic like the latter are more lyrical. I'm not sure about the lyrical part, but the Portuguese definitely seem to be less dramatic than the Spanish, at least, since the early 20th century when the Portuguese killed the last king and his heir. The revolution of 1974 was about as lyrical as a revolution can be and Portugal still have a much more diverse group of political ideologies than does Spanish, the latter country is essentially divided into the Popular Party, a fairly extremist right-wing party...and an everyone who isn't a extreme right-wingers.
Publicado por: Jon Davis | 04/07/2011 14:47:29