Hypocrites

PS (Socialist Party) is abstaining from the vote on the state budget 2012, which seems to have been mostly approved today.  The members of PS are known as militants, but the hammer and sickle is not its logo.  Instead it uses the fist and when that seems a bit old fashioned the inconspicuous and peaceful red rose is used.  Except for the militancy bit, pretty much the same as all social democratic parties in Europe.

The new leader of the Socialists is called Mr. Seguro (seguro means safe).  It is a good name for a socialist leader, I suppose.  I am on the other hand a bit fed up with the Gentleman.  He spends his time trying to remove all blame from his own party, assign it to the current government and taking no responsibility what so ever for the current situation.  He has only managed to tarnish even more the reputation of Portugal and brought into doubt the ability of Portugal to persevere.

If I were to meet Mr. Seguro, a safe bet is that I would like to point out a few facts:

1. If any single party is to blame for the current crisis then it is the socialists as they been in government the last 6 years.
2. The agreement with the Troika was signed by the last socialist government.
3. I understand you are very much against cutting down public expenditure, even though you know it is necessary.  You worry about the human costs, as many do - including me.
4. You have no alternatives (to my knowledge) to cutting down public expenditure except more taxes for everybody.  Thus the agreement with the Troika would be put into jeopardy as it clearly states 1/3 extra income and 2/3 cuts on the expenditure.  
5. You seem to represent the type of socialism some call concrete socialism.  Old fashioned proletariate against the evil capitalists.  This even though you and everybody else know - there is only one way out of this crisis and this is by producing more than we spend.  The producers are nearly all private enterprise.  Even current communist countries promote private enterprise.
6. Even you must by now realize the public debt is a problem? 

All in all you make a very weak performance.  We are not amused.

If you have real alternatives - present them (and there are no buffers in the state budget for 2012)  I believe some of the government proposed measures are weak in many areas and too expansive in others.  Some carry extreme risk and I would like to see alternatives that also take life quality and social coherence into account.  Also I would like to see measures that promote growth and private enterprise.   However - the current realities and the (your) agreement with the Troika leave little room for manoeuvres.

May I suggest this is a time for unity and humility?  Your current strategy have created exactly zero results for your electorate.  As the main opposition party - you have responsibilities above and beyond petty party politics. Your previous party leader (his name a joke in many circles) became an embarrassment for the country.  The number of scandals your ex-leader and the Socialist Party have been involved in the last years is staggering.

Mr. Seguro, I do not know your background beyond that you have been a government minister, I do not know whether you personally are partly responsible for the actions of the previous two socialist governments.  My guess would be yes, as I think you are not new to politics, and that you must be a man of influence in PS, to have become the new leader.  But I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume by miracle you are a gentleman and a person of integrity. 

However, I find your discourse tiresome and arrogant in the extreme considering the track record of the last two governments.   PSD (Social Democrat Party), as a member of the two big party system, is in my opinion nearly as guilty as PS in having brought the country to the brink.  However, your guilt is more recent and thus more obvious.  If the people were ever to obtain justice and see heads roll (metaphorically speaking of course) they would look first into the actions - many call criminal negligence and even crimes - of the people in and behind the previous government.   

Shall we look at a few statistics from the last two governments (PS and colored red)?  A big hat tip to the Portuguese blog:  Desmitos for the graphs from:  The real legacy of this government from May 2011.  (this refers to then PS government)

Rate of growth of GDP

Public debt in percentage of GDP (hidden debt not included for 2010)

Public debt in percentage of GDP (hidden debt not included for 2010)

Unemployment rate

Net external debt as percentage of GDP

Portuguese GDP as a percentage of average GDP of top tier European countries

And now to the infamous PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships), perhaps one of the best indicators of overspending, corruption and "jobs for the boys"?!  Here are the number of PPPs established per government.  Thanks to that my eventual great grandchildren will still have a debt in 70 years...

Government:

• Cavaco Silva (PSD): 2 
• António Guterres (PS): 30 
• Durão Barroso (PSD) : 6 
• José Sócrates (PS): 50

The graphs and numbers speak for themselves I find.

An sincere humble apology to the entire Portuguese people is in order - how dare you not!