49 posts
Protests promised in Portugal over rail fare hikes
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PORTUGAL A Plataforma das Comissões de Utentes da Carris, the Platform of Committees of Rail Transport Users, has promised to organise protests in the coming days over sharp rises in fares for rail transport announced by the right wing government of...
Portuguese face deepest pay cut in over quarter of century
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The Portuguese will see biggest fall in pay next year since 1985 and the sharpest drop in the 27 countries of the EU, according to the union of technical public employees (Sindicato dos Quadros Técnicos do Estado e de Entidades com Fins Públicos).
Union accuses Portugal Goverment of ‘subverting’ democracy
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The leader of Portugal’s main CGTP trade union has accused the government of refusing dialogue and “subverting” democracy in its drive to change labour laws under an austerity bailout programme. Manuel Carvalho da Silva forecast that the centre...
Contagion Beyond the Headlines: Portugal and Eastern Europe
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The E.U. states of Greece and Italy were grabbing headlines during the first two weeks of November 2011, given the dramatic resignations of Papandreou and Berlusconi. The only other state to get some attention was France. The Wall Street Journal note...
Portugal and the Troika Assessment
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Some time ago I was writing to say that there were some news about the austerity measures sugested by the Troika to the Portuguese Government in order to control the Public Budget and Debt. It is commonly known that in spite of all the hard times Por...
A Portuguese silver lining?
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Financial markets today have been whipsawed yet again by data showing the one bright spot on the eurozone’s economic horizon – the German growth engine – may be faltering. But Eurostat’s quarterly report on the currency region’s economic he...
[New] Portuguese Politics & Economics and the World
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The recent Portuguese PSD-CDS/PP coalition Government received a heavy burden to be shared with all the Portuguese people. Eventhough the Portuguese people don’t have the complete knowledge needed to answer the main question: “Why?R...
Before another Greek bail-out, a first look at Portugal
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If the Greek crisis has taught us anything over the past few weeks it’s that going from a bail-out back into the financial markets is hard, and any rescue programme should be very conservative when it comes to estimating how …Continue reading...
Portugal's deceptive shift to the right
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It's a clear majority on paper, but messier in reality.The polls in Portugal have been closed for an hour, and it is already clear that the Socialist Party led by Jose Socrates have been thrown out of office with its worst showing since 1987, an...
Sometimes you can't have both: democracy and the euro
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There is a fundamental tension between democracy and the euro that is playing itself out in the South of Europe today. Daniel Oliveira of the Portuguese newspaper Expresso wrote this week that Portugal is being treated like a colony by the North, whe...
The last 400 years and the next four
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Four hundred years ago Portugal was going through its first experience of European political integration. Today we call it the “age of the Philips” and it makes us think of Spain, but only by ignorance. The Philips belonged to a … C...
Ecofin: Eurozone bailout Portugal
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It is a telling sign of weak EU structures that the chief outcome of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) is produced ”in the margins” of the Council: Statement by the Eurogroup and ECOFIN Ministers (16 May; no document identifier)...
FT video: Portugal’s bail-out
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Portugal is to get a €78bn ($116bn) bail-out from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, the third eurozone country to receive emergency external funding. Lex's John Authers and Vincent Boland discuss if it's enough to resolve the...
Portugal and the bail-out enigma
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Gradually the details are emerging of the EU's third bail-out deal. Portugal will be offered 78bn euros (£70bn) over three years. It is a substantial loan and higher than some expected. A total of 12bn euros will be set aside...
Parliamentary Election Surveys in Portugal
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With many thanks to Marktest for making this publically available. There are some interestingly consistent discrepancies between surveyors… Nonetheless, we can see that most surveys have the opposition PSD loosing ground to the PS in recent day...
Bailouts, austerity and democratic legitimacy – it’s not pretty, but politics is working in Europe
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By Phillip Souta Jose Socrates, the prime minister of embattled Portugal, tendered his resignation on 23 March after failing in a last ditch attempt to get a raft of austerity measures through parliament. New elections are to be held on 5 June.
Portugal: the danger is not over
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LISBON The threat of a bail-out had been hanging over Portugal for months. It perhaps explains why the initial reaction to the request for help was so muted. But talking to people in the warm sunshine you discover a different...
Last post for Portuguese democracy
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This will be my last post on this blog I’m afraid, as you can tell from my absence there have been some problems. It will be goodbye from me, on this forum at least. You can follow me doing my day job here. But by the way of a farewell… O...
EU summit: Anxiety over Portugal’s woes
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The Liberal Democrats chose the elegant Palais D'Egmont for their pre-summit gathering. While the leafy grounds are gorgeous - particularly on a very un-Belgian sunny day - the mood was anxious.Continue reading: "EU summit: Anxiety over Portugal̵...
EU summit: Portuguese opposition leader hopes against bail-out
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The pre-summit caucuses of leaders in their party groupings have begun, and one of the surprise guests at the centre-right European Peoples' Party meeting is Pedro Passos Coelho, the head of Portugal's opposition Social Democrats and the country's li...
Euro Update(18): Portugal in the dangerous month ahead
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I mentioned that the Portuguese Finance Minister wasn’t very happy with the result of the meeting of Eurozone finance ministers that took place on Monday. I’m putting my money on the fact that the vote of no confidence scheduled for ...
United Nations Security Council Election Voting Results
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Image via Wikipedia As promised here are the results from today’s elections at the UN General Assembly to fill 5 non-permanent seats at the UN Security Council. The quota in all elections was 127 based on the fact that 182 members were present...
Security Council Election Results
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Image by Getty Images via @daylife A follow on from this mornings post on the Elections to the five non-permament seats on the UN Security Council. The following countries have been elected: African Group: South Africa Asian Group: India Latin Americ...
Elections to the Security Council
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Image via Wikipedia Today 5 new members of the of United Nations Security Council will be elected. They will replace Uganda, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Austria. They will be elected for two years. The African seat is not being contested as South Afric...
Euroblogosphere: Who discovers Portugal?
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The current population of Portugal is 10.6 million, but this small country was at the vanguard of European overseas exploration (Wikipedia). About 260 million speakers of Portuguese are the legacy of these intrepid explorers and the colonial empire...
EU: Stability programme Portugal
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The abbreviation PIIGS has become shorthand for the troubled economies which represent five out of 16 members and a considerable proportion of the population of the eurozone: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Stability programmes for euroz...
Portugal legalises gay marriage
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I welcome the fact that Portugal's parliament has approved plans to legalise gay marriage, paving the way for the country to become the sixth in Europe to allow gays and lesbians to get married. As the Socialist Portuguese Prime Minister Jose S...
Parliamentary elections in Portugal and Germany
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National elections in EU member states concern the lives of citizens not only in the respective countries but in all countries of the Union.Through the policy-making power of the EU Council and the guiding weight of the European Council, governments...
Visit to Portugal
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On 27, 28 April I went to Portugal to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Deco, the Portuguese consumers’ association which has contributed so much to developing consumer policy in Portugal. The anniversary was commemorated with a seminar on fin...
Brazilian Devours its Mother Tongue
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By decree of a law passed last week, Portugal will no longer use Portuguese.Well, not the same kind of Portuguese anyway. In a highly controversial vote that’s been debated for many years, the Portuguese Parliament has effectively changing the lang...
