Give Portugal a North
We can and aim for more. Over the last six years that we have been governed by the Socialist Party and its far left partners, the Portuguese have supported (and paid for) a Government that did not put citizens first. The Portuguese, an individual and corporate title, were always the first to pay the bills that PS, BE and PCP dissipate to satisfy the wishes of their electoral clientele. With this, an enormous effort was requested from the Portuguese through the payment of a high burden of taxes, contributions, fees and taxes, without there being an effective return on this payment in quality public services. Even worse, today we clearly see the result of TAP’s nationalization – a Portuguese family of 4 will pay around €1300 to save TAP. Portugal could be a rich country and it’s not because of the wrong choices that have been made.
In fact, we have been living in a reality of maximum taxes – services and services.
This succession of choices has limited the growth of the Portuguese economy year after year, and despite help from Europe, Portugal continues to be a poor country and to be overtaken by Eastern European countries on their way to becoming the poorest country in Europe . Socialism, also in Portugal, has been characterized by the fact that it is the path to poverty, inaction and lack of ambition. This is a particularly harsh reality for the North of Portugal, an industrialized, exporting and ambitious region that has been successively and increasingly harmed by Lisbon’s centralism incapable of seeing a country as a whole. In the North, everything is demanded, taxes, exports, work. But when the time comes to support, but mainly to invest, the vortex of centralism is such that the gap between Lisbon and the rest of the country is increasingly widening. We are less and less Portugal and we are more and more “Lisbogal”.
The Portuguese Government was also one of those that, throughout Europe, least supported companies during the pandemic and the scant support always reached companies, businesses and workers in the afternoon. The transition to a more digital and sustainable economy remains suspended, while the constant degradation of Public Services, Health, Education, Justice, Defense, Security, Civil Protection, Public Transport accelerates.
Today, an overwhelming majority of Portuguese young people who are lucky enough to have a job have to choose between emigrating, living in their parents’ house or sharing a house with old college friends. And this happens at 20, 25, 30 and over. The Government’s housing policy was a complete failure. Not to mention investment in housing: in Portugal, buying a house and an alternative to it on the rental market often gives a loss, such is the tax burden paid on the purchase, ownership and rental of the property. We are increasingly a country with little future for young people and this reality that we urgently need to change. We need to give Portugal a North.
* Deputy of the PSD