Without a policy to eradicate poverty, the government of António Costa limits itself to punctual and innocuous measures, when it does not reduce the value of salaries and pensions to a bad rank. At the same time, it safeguards the super-profits of banks and large companies such as Galp, EDP, Sonae or Jerónimo Martins, or grants millionaire bonuses to its collaborators, as demonstrated by the recent TAP/Alexandra Reis scandal.
By: In Luta, Portugal
Christmas 2022 was poorer in Portugal. For the workers, of course. Although inflation has remained between 9% and 10% since last June, nominal wages have not grown more than 4%. Therefore, it is estimated that the loss of their purchasing power was 5% on average in the last year. It is therefore not surprising that the number of working poor in the country is increasing, even if they are not unemployed. The scenario for 2023 is not expected to be much different. A decree-law promulgated by the Government establishes a fixed increase in the salary of public employees of 52 euros in January for those who earn up to 2,600 euros and of only 2% for those who exceed that figure. In the private sector, the income agreement signed by unions and employers provides for a readjustment of only 5.1%.
As for pensioners, they lost purchasing power in 2022 and will be even more affected from 2023, due to the real trap set up by the PS government to drastically reduce their pensions. In exchange for an increase equivalent to the amount of the half pension paid for a single time, in October 2022, the government suspended the law for updating pensions in accordance with inflation. This means that instead of increasing by 8.42% now in January 2023, a percentage corresponding to the inflation estimated by the government, pensions will have a much smaller readjustment, between 3.89% and 4.83%.
According to the newspaper Public, pensioners who earn 600 euros per month will have an increase in the amount of their pension of only 28.98 euros, instead of the 50.52 euros to which they would be entitled if the law were applied. The worst thing is that the calculation base for the increases in the following years will be this reduced value. Criticized by retirees associations [pensionados]the government cynically denies the obvious cut in pensions.
sad 8th place
According to the calculation of the Consumer Defense (DECO), a basic food basket, which was around 185 euros in February 2022, increased to 218 euros in December. This means that inflation mainly penalizes the poorest. For them, inflation means not having food on the table.
On the other hand, high rents and rising interest rates have made housing an increasingly prohibitive item for a large part of the population. Today there are more than 49,000 families in Greater Lisbon living in conditions considered unworthy, while in the country 9,000 people are homeless.
It is no coincidence that Portugal ranks 8th in the list of European countries with the highest risk of poverty and social exclusion. In this situation, according to Eurostat, the Statistics Office of the European Union, there are 2.3 million Portuguese, which is equivalent to 22.4% of the population. Those living on less than 554 euros net per month are considered to be at risk of poverty, making it virtually impossible to guarantee a regular meal of meat or fish or keep the house warm.
poverty has a face
The majority of the poor or those at risk of poverty in Portugal are women, the elderly and immigrants, more specifically those known by the jargon of European bureaucrats as non-EU foreigners. They are Moroccan, Timorese, Nepali, Indian, Pakistani, Senegalese, Guinean and from various other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of those who come to Portugal hoping to improve their lives only find exploitation and hunger.
This is the case of immigrants who work in the olive campaign in Alentejo. When there is no more work, they are left without protection, sleeping outdoors and without even money to eat, totally dependent on the charity of non-governmental institutions, such as Cáritas and others. While the extreme right, racist and xenophobic parties, like Chega, accuse them of being lazy who take advantage of State subsidies, the reality is quite different. The Migration Observatory found that immigrants in Portugal contribute much more than what they receive from the State coffers. In 2021, the balance between contributions made and social benefits received reached 968 million euros.
Costa’s handouts
Instead of increasing salaries and pensions in line with inflation; to end the precariousness and exploitation of immigrants, legalizing all those who live and work in the country; Instead of freezing the value of rents and increasing the supply of real estate at prices appropriate to the Portuguese reality, the government entertains itself by giving alms that only perpetuate the situation of hardship.
Examples of this are the 70 euros, in addition to the family bonus, that are given to each child in extreme poverty, in a total of 150,000, or the extraordinary support of 125 euros granted, for a single time, to workers and beneficiaries of social benefits, and the most recent check of €240 to the poorest, supposedly to minimize the impact of the rise in prices.
Inflation in 2022 added 8.1%, but the minimum wage was readjusted only 7.8%. Its value rose from 705 to 760 euros. It is with this money that 25% of wage earners in Portugal will have to survive and pay their food, housing, transportation and clothing expenses. It is with this meager income that they will have to face a year in which, according to the Bank of Portugal’s own forecasts, economic growth will drop from 6.8% to 1.5%, in which recession is a realistic prospect and inflation will continue.
At the same time that it refuses to increase the salaries of public employees and the minimum wage in line with inflation, or to freeze the prices of rents and essential goods, the PS government refuses even to tax windfall profits of companies. So far, it has agreed to tax only the portion of profits from oil and food distribution companies that exceeds 20%. It leaves out, therefore, most of these profits and companies in the electricity sector, banks and insurance companies.
For whom does the PS rule?
The truth is that the Costa government serves the interests of big capital and its auxiliaries, in government and outside of it. His obsession with reducing public debt, in line with the schedule of the troikaand keeping the accounts in order, that is, obeying the recipe of the European Commission, does not include the benefits granted to its collaborators, such as the 500,000 euros given to Alexandra Reis, or the profits of large companies.
Those who are paying the bill for the crisis are, as always, the workers. Changing this can only be a task for the workers themselves, in the struggle, and not in negotiations and “geringonças” in which they always lose out.
Article published in https://emlta.net, 1/20/2023.-
Translation: Natalia Estrada.