50 years since the revolution, where is Portugal today?

Portugal is better off today than it was at the end of its military dictatorship. But where does it stand compared to other European countries?

Transcript

00:00 Portugal is celebrating 50 years of democracy. The Portuguese revolution granted citizens

00:07 many rights, but what remains to be done in the country today?

00:15 It's not just rights, freedoms and guarantees, social status and security in employment and protection in employment.

00:22 Because many of these things have unfortunately receded since the late 80s.

00:27 What remained of what is now, was the perception that it is possible to live in another way.

00:34 Undoubtedly, Portugal's economy is now better than 50 years ago, but it suffers from low productivity and bad working conditions,

00:42 as well as low quality public services compared to other European countries.

00:47 There is, especially since the 21st century, an intense degradation of public services,

00:53 with a high remuneration of capital through interest, therefore through loans, public debt, etc.

01:01 This will destroy the capacity to install, produce and also erode public services.

01:09 Portugal continues to be the poorest country in Western Europe.

01:16 Portugal did not improve the relative situation it had in terms of ranking of countries.

01:24 Portugal continues to be the poorest, the last, the most behind in terms of human capital, in terms of education levels,

01:32 in terms of its population, it continues to be the last on the list of Western Europe, in terms of the functioning of political institutions.

01:40 Portugal is reliant on money from the European Union.

01:47 However, enlargement of the bloc may result in a decrease in available funds for the country.

01:54 Instead of being the salvation of the country, as is often seen and thus described by political actors,

02:02 being a bazooka that will save the country, a rain of millions, I don't know what, that will serve to save the country,

02:08 in reality these funds have very negative effects, both for the Portuguese economy,

02:13 in particular for the part of the economy that is subject to international competition,

02:18 the so-called transactionable goods, the transactionable sector of the economy, on the one hand,

02:23 and on the other hand, it also has negative effects for the political process that exists in Portugal.

02:29 In the end, European funds are a kind of rapid pensions or aspirins,

02:33 they are hiding from the disease of Portuguese society, the disease of the Portuguese economy.

02:38 Portugal also scores low on the Democracy Index, implying the country has steps to take to improve its government.

02:45 Nothing wrong.

02:47 [WHOOSH]