macliam

A Portuguese friend sent me a link to an article on "O Ouriço - Blogosfera que Pica" (The Hedgehog - The blog that prickles) supposedly by Antonio Moreira, a senator and founder of the CDS-PP party INDECOROSO por Adriano Moreira - O Ouriço.

It has been around for a while, but is entitled "INDECOROSO" (Unseemly or Improper) and castigates politicians for the level of pensions in Portugal compared to the perks that the poliiticians get. If the article is truly by Moreira, remember that CDS/PP is not a left-leaning radical party, but centre right conservatives - so are the Portuguese starting to wake up to self-serving politicians that they elect?

For those of you who may not be able to understand the original, I'll translate it - then you can compare the perks with those of a UK politician!

Especially dedicated to the "ministers" Poiares Maduro and Maria Luís Albuquerque for their "brilliant" statements on the sustainability of pensions ...
IT IS A SHAME to compare the Pension of a Deputy (MP) with that of a Widow.
IT IS A SHAME that a Citizen must pay deductions for 40 years or more to receive their pension, yet Deputies get theirs after 6 years or 3 years and members of the Government (ministers) just need to swear the oath of office to collect the Maximum Pension.
IT IS A SHAME that the "Members" are the only "Workers" (???) in this Country who have a tax exemption for 1/3 of their salary ... and retire with 100% salary rather than the workers pension of 80% ...
IT IS A SHAME to employ thousands of "Advisors" (read "Buddies") in the administration with salaries equivalent to the most qualified technicians.
IT IS A SHAME, the huge amount of state support given to the (Political) Parties and approved by the same politicians who live from it.
IT IS A SHAME that a Politician does not require the slightest proof of ability to perform his post (and we are not speaking in intellectual or cultural terms).
IT IS A SHAME that Taxpayers pay their Food, Official Cars, Drivers, Travel (always 1st Class) and Credit Cards.
IT IS A SHAME that "Your Excellencies" have almost 5 months paid holiday per year (48 days at Christmas, 17 days at Easter, even for the many who declare themselves to be non-religious, and 82 days in Summer).
IT IS A SHAME that "Your Excellencies", when they leave office, still receive 80% of their salary for 18 months.
IT IS A SHAME that former Ministers, former Secretaries of State and Senior Officials when they leave office are the only citizens of this country who can legally receive 2 salaries from the public purse.
IT IS A SHAME to use social media to tell "Society" that Civil Servants are just a drain on the pockets of Taxpayers.
IT IS A SHAME to have a residence in Sintra and to claim living expenses for "Displacement to the Capital" because they claim they live in another city.

... and to think there was an expenses scandal in the UK!!

GeniB

I think this is a world wide situation macliam. This level of corruption has nothing on the USA or as you mentioned the UK. i strongly object to my tax paying for all this as well.At least I can see where some of it goes here,ditto where it went in NL. I wasn't aware of it going anywhere in the UK. until some filtered back through the EU
I don't think Portugal was ever asleep. Freedom of speech was simple denied to them up until 1974

EMR

Change all or most of that to the benefits received and abuses of the system made by UK mps or in fact almost most elected officials in most governments..

Ingles

With all due respect , the LEVEL off corruption in PT Politics & Public Service is a absolute disgrace & growing yearly !

Sadly the Judicial System is massively underfunded & until theirs a huge upheaval inside the system very little will be achieved to change this, which those in charge are very loath to do !!!

Just 2 Cases
ExPM Socrates :- This investigation has not just opened a can off worms , It's exposed that "the boy's" have developed at very high level a way off scathing each others back's, to the Tax Payers determent !
There are now a LOT off high profile persons involved , it's a spiders web off deceit.
They are bleeding the country dry literally, as the investigators uncovered during the investigation , that the contracts to supply Blood & Blood derivatives to the PT Health Service had been fixed & it seems that my many years of donating blood to the system, where a waste off time ,as the donated blood was stored until it was past it's "sell by date" & then discarded , so that the "boy's" could then buy & then supply plasma to the Health System from a supplier that would look after them !

BES Bank :- A very well planed operation , run & based inside the Bank by Ricardo Salgado that has taken many years to set up , Off Shore Cº's all over the world , countless millions hidden & washed ,& I do mean countless & NO END in sight off the investigation.

macliam

With respect to those who suggest the level of misuse here is the same as in the UK or the USA, those countries are not in crisis and actually cutting the benefits payable to the poorest whilst increasing the payments to politicians, they do not have the majority of their populace working at the minimum wage and many on short-term contracts and there is a level of oversight on both of them beyond the vested interests.

It is true that all those in power tend to "feather their own nests", but the level here, when compared to the average person is far, far greater. MPs in the UK do NOT have the level of non-salary benefits or tax allowances that they do here in Portugal, Ministers in the UK lose their increased salary as soon as they step down and they do not have assigned cars and drivers. This, in a country with a GDP far, far greater than Portugal. Personally, when I saw Cavaco, as an EX-President, being driven in a state-supplied chauffeur-driven linousine with police outriders, I thought of my neighbours who would not be able to live if they did not grow their own food and have had their transport cut from one bus a week to one bus a month, due to the "crisis". When he started to complain about the amount of money he was "expected to live on", I felt sick. The average wage here in Portugal is just higher than in Greece and lower than anywhere else in Europe outside the "Eastern Bloc". It is two-thirds of the average wage in Spain..... and got worse during Cavaco's "reign".

The problem seems to be that the Portuguese people are too pacific to stop the bullies and almost applaud corruption as "getting away with it" - this is partly a reaction to 60 years of dictatorship but seems to have entered the Portuguese psyche. The multitude of Parties here since 1974 has meant there is no clear division in representation (I wonder whether there would be so many parties without state support). Only when the voters "wake up" will there be any change and it is noticeable that there is no "new" party here like in Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, France and the UK - just the same old clique posturing as Maoists or Trots or whatever whilst screwing the poor.

PS - I mistakenly called Adriano Moreira, "Antonio" in my first post and can't edit it. Sorry.

GeniB

Not saying I agree with it. Not literally comparing like for like with the UK or USA. (You can hardly compare the UK to the USA either)

There is no doubt that inequality and levels of corruption are huge in Portugal. but they equal the amount of challenge the people have been able to make over the yrs. The UK and the USA have a massive head start there.It's therefore not s matter of 'waking up' as your headline suggests,but of having the confidence and education to challenge these few traditional families who have for generations dictated to the people.
I am not that au fait with Portuguese history other than the fact that the top echelons left with the Royal Family and 10,000 members of the elite ruling class for the safety of Brazil at the approach of Napoleons troops.. (that they were 'helped' by the British is a double edged sword.)
The people were thus left rudderless and to a large extent at the mercy of those with some little power left behind. I don't think they have had a cohesive plan since then?.
The return of the Royal family was a disaster .
Many tried.to do something . Pombal. Even Salazar in the beginning. Like all 'prizes' though . To the victor goes the spoils ' and the educated elite took over. Democracy was not hot on their agenda. Democracy has to be fought for.. They did it once at the carnation revolution.. Maybe they are ripe for doing it again.

At least they had a go.then . Not seeing much protest in the UK or the USA at our recent democratic disasters either

GeniB

This sounds exactly like Dick Cheney's scams with the innoculations for pig flu or bird fu or whatever it was floating around some yrs ago, that caused a mass panic around the world. It was all orchestrated by one of his companies and he made billions out of it. None of this should come as a surprise.The Portuguese elite are no different..just fewer..and a tad more exposed than in the USA and UK. It remains though up to the people to get mad at this.To get organised.To want a fairer world and then... Oh dear, you will be accused of being a loony lefty etc.
Only countries like NL get quietly on it seems with education,equality,alongside the inevitable corruption and greed of the few.
Like the poor,they will always be with us. The one bright light is that they have been exposed. Not so very long ago that would never have happened

macliam

Unfortunately, the "Carnation Revolution" has been hijacked by those who did absolutely nothing and had nothing to do with it. It was not a popular revolt against an oppressive government, the "Captains of April" revolted against a government and senior officer class that was sending them to kill and be killed in guerilla wars where they had little chance of winning. The Captains had little interest in politics and handed over control almost immediately to an interim government. Most of the left-wing politicians were living abroad and only returned after the fall of the Estado Novo, at which point the usual infighting started and there was a failed counter-coup. So, the fall of the Estado Novo was a happy consequence of the officers revolt, not the primary aim. Not quite what is celebrated or what the re-writers would have you think.

My wife was 18 at the time an working for Philips in Lisbon. All she remembers is that before 25 April it was dangerous to be in a union and after it was dangerous NOT to be. Due to the uncertainty, Philips closed, like many foreign companies, and she lost her job. No great liberation for her..... but one of her brothers was undergoing military training at the time, so it may well have saved his life. Her other brother had been rejected from military service for flat feet (!)

So, I don't really think the "people" had anything much to do with the "new democracy" - it was a stitch-up between those who had not been in the country and those who came out of the shadows once the PIDE was gone. That's why the setup is as it is - those with the power created instruments to maintain it.

Things haven't changed much since then.....

Ingles

Up date !
Octapharma boss under house arrest in plasma supply corruption inquiry

And another 1
http://algarvedailynews.com/news/108...ion-allegation