Just over a year ago, the large victory of the Socialist Party (PS) in the Portuguese legislative elections gave it a comfortable absolute majority in Parliament. But the honeymoon with voters seems to have fizzled. For several months, the government of Antonio Costa has been confronted with multiple social unrest and a rapid deterioration in its popularity. Saturday, February 25, thousands of Portuguese are expected to take to the streets again under a common banner, that of a new platform for a “just life”, which called on the Portuguese to demonstrate against inflation in this country in the low wages and overpriced housing.
According a Catholic University survey for the media publicRTP and Antenna 1published Thursday, 53% of Portuguese consider the management of the government ” bad ” Or ” very bad “i.e. fifteen points more than eight months ago, compared to the 39% who consider it ” reasonable “ and barely 7% ” Good “. The PS also fell by six points in voting intentions compared to July, to 32%, closely followed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center right), to 31%.
Symbols of the social discontent that has taken over the country, teachers have been demonstrating regularly and massively in the streets of Lisbon for more than two months to demand salary increases and better working conditions. They ask for the catch-up of salaries frozen following the financial crisis of 2008. They also denounce the precariousness of the thousands of contract workers, assigned to each new school year tens or even hundreds of kilometers from home. Their meager salary of 1,200 euros, which takes into account neither seniority nor the resulting travel and accommodation costs, barely allows them to make it through the month.
” Two countries “
“The lack of teachers is increasingly glaring and the government’s measures to meet the needs, especially in the areas south of Lisbon, where rents are unaffordable, are only worsening the working conditions of teachers », assures Sandra Dias, spokesperson for the new Union of all education professionals (STOP). For this 44-year-old Spanish teacher who teaches in Setubal, a contract worker for more than eighteen years before being appointed, the government is wrong ” arrogance ”, because of its absolute majority, and by “lack of political will to invest in the public sector, while it has distributed millions of euros to the airline TAP or to the banks”, threatened with bankruptcy. A recurring opinion in the processions of demonstrators.
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