It is good to remember …

Recent history has shown and the events have confirmed it to what extremes of bondage a country may come when the excesses of irresponsible policies lead it to the lowest levels of credibility and trust.

Portugal, owing to the folly of its politicians – a group of lads who struggled more to defend their corporate interests than the public interest – ended embarrassed and ashamed seeing its sovereignty sold to the creditors.

Sometimes, not to be forgotten, we should situate things in their historical context. For this reason and as time does not refine memory, on the contrary, it would be a missed opportunity not to bring to mind the long road of suffering of a country whose polluted system led to three bankruptcies in just 40 years of democracy!

Unfortunately it is nothing to which it is not used since immemorial times. It is so accustomed to these misfortunes that it tries to disguise, as good as it can, its permanent identity crisis.

As past behaviours are predictions for the future and as there are politicians who solve and know everything, true oracles in political demagoguery, pretending to be friendly and concerned about people to get votes, it is always necessary to be on guard with these actors who, in the past, ended their performance leaving the country in the shameful humiliation of having to stretch out the hand to charity.

Then the bomb of our sovereign debt burst. Most citizens were not aware of the reality of the country and did not know anything about the economic resources, because the message conveyed by those who ruled was based on a pack of lies to hide the true size of our debt.

It is good to remember once more that it was with the Socialist Party government that in 1977 and in 1983, being Mário Soares Prime Minister and in 2011 with José Sócrates as Prime Minister that Portugal had to ask for external help. In 1974 the public coffers were full but greedy mouths emptied them in the twinkling of an eye. And so on …

What reliability can the position of its current leaders deserve when they are already promising all possible things, oblivious of the effort of four years’ sacrifices of the taxpayers to correct the excesses of the previous government and preventing Portugal from another Greek tragedy?

When there was the second crisis and people discovered that Greece had systematically falsified the public accounts it presented to the European Union, we were all sure that in Portugal nothing like that was happening. We were immersed in the myopia of our good faith, far from realizing that we were also approaching the purgatory and that everything we were told was a poor mystification.

Benefits to party members, corruption and tax evasion ruined Greece. These bad examples reflect the folly of Greek Socialists and Social-Democrats who, eager to get votes, did not control the public expenditure and deliberately increased the sovereign debt, causing the earthquake Syrisa and its shocking policy with no possibility of being successful and that soon fell apart but which was applauded by all Portuguese Left parties, including the Socialist party. After the fiasco everyone knows, it is painful to see the pirouettes of the SP, disguising the discomfort of their unconditional adherence to these policies that have been a succession of disappointments aggravating the fate of the Greek people.

Over 40 years, passively submitted to bureaucratic governments of hierarchical mentality which have been the cause of many of our misfortunes, the responsible and worried Portuguese society wonders about the party consensus of the economic model to be followed which should not be illusory, ephemeral and unsustainable and should allow the implementation of future policies necessary for the progress and welfare of our children and grandchildren.

Other countries have shown how it was possible to get out of bankruptcy and recover the lost economy with or without implicit or explicit pacts of the main political parties. If this has been done by Sweden, England, Brazil, etc., does it mean that we are different, maybe not quite interested in giving a sense of stability and progress to our lives?

I believe that nobody with common sense might be interested in turning a country of excellence into a territory where irrationality reigns.

Once more confronted with a political and electoral cycle that puts the Right and the Left in confrontation, each side trying to impose their saving formulas, there are many people who long for a Leftist magical solution to win the elections and keep easy promises made when they are no government and do not think of becoming it someday. On the other side, there are so many others who want to see continued the responsible trajectory of a government that has relieved the country of the risks that were about to take place, hoping not to be subjected to irresponsible policies again, like the public-private partnerships, the paid studies for the new Ota airport, TGV, SCUTS, the modernization programme of schools, highways with no traffic, separated by ridiculous distances, bridges, tunnels, etc.. This is only a black part of the history of an indictment on the responsibilities of the socialists who have never been able to achieve the balance of the public expenses between what is possible and what is desirable.

Definitively, to put the power in their hands would mean to repeat the calvary for the poor taxpayers who have already made so many sacrifices in this legislature to pay the follies of their mistakes that have compromised the lives of all of us for an undetermined time.

Vote according to your conscience!

 

 

 

 

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