In an about-face, Portugal’s government has agreed to negotiate alternative solutions to a social security tax hike that sparked the worst backlash to austerity since last year’s EU/IMF bailout was unveiled, an official statement said yesterday.
After an eight-hour meeting of the presidential state council that was besieged by protesters and ended long after midnight yesterday evening, the council said the negotiations would now proceed between the government, unions and employers.
On Friday, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho promised to “listen to the country” after huge street protests last weekend and criticism of the plan by unions and business leaders alike. He had previously only agreed to “calibrate” the measure. The plan to raise the contributions next year to 18 percent from 11 percent has undermined a reluctant acceptance of austerity in Portugal which has heaped pressure on the government as it strives to meet the strict conditions of the bailout.
Photo: AFP
“The council was informed of the government’s readiness to study, within the framework of the social bargaining process, alternatives to changes in the social security rate,” the statement said after the council meeting.
It also said that “difficulties that could affect the solidity of the ruling coalition have been overcome,” confirming earlier statements by the two center-right coalition partners that they remained committed to the bailout’s targets. Junior coalition partner CDS-PP is traditionally against tax hikes.
Thousands of protesters gathered next to the presidential palace where Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva met with his council — the consultative body made up of senior political figures, including the prime minister.
Photo: Reuters
Angry demonstrators demanded the government’s resignation and chanted: “Thieves, thieves!” Over a hundred stayed until the end of the meeting and booed the council members as they left.
Expresso weekly newspaper said in its weekend edition the premier had decided to abandon the measure, which had irritated workers because it simultaneously reduced social security contributions by companies, but was preparing a new cut in holiday subsidies for workers instead to meet tough fiscal goals of the bailout.
Some analysts say the badly-devised attempt to hike the social security levy will make additional austerity measures harder to swallow now despite the government’s retreat and strife is likely to grow especially since Portugal’s economic recession is now expected to continue next year.
Portugal has entered its worst recession since the 1970s as it labors under sweeping tax increases and spending cuts, with the centre-right government’s popularity slumping to an all-time low after it announced the tax changes.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese