The President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva, said today that "it is an illusion" to think that the country’s problems can easily be solved as he spoke out against the "fear of change" and encouraged policy makers not to be afraid to act.
In a rare example of presidential sparkle, Cavaco Silva spoke at the annual meeting of the Council of the Portuguese Diaspora, saying "Portugal is still in front of a large very demanding challenge. Portugal continues to face severe restrictions and will have high demands placed upon it the future. It is an illusion to think that the country's problems are solved."
At the close of the annual meeting, the Head of State said that when chatting, people can say whatever comes to mind, including nonsense, but the reality always ends up imposing itself, sometimes with a time delay but someone always has to pay the bill."
"That is why it is essential that decision makers act with a good grasp of reality, knowing the barriers that the country has to and the restrictions that are ahead of us. This presupposes credible information and reasoned analysis," said Silva at the rather glorious surroundings of the Palácio da Cidadela de Cascais.
Cavaco Silva went further, stressing that decision makers cannot act on "mere improvisation.""Right now, keeping things as they are and fearing change is a risk that we are taking, is one of the risks we run. I think the Council of the Diaspora can give Portugal a helping hand and our policy makers should not be afraid to act and should not put off decisions that are critical to take."
Cavaco Silva began his forthright speech by saying "Portugal successfully has completed the assistance programme and there has been no need for a second bailout, nor for an interim programme" and it has made "a significant correction to macroeconomic imbalances."
"The positive results of our external accounts reflect a structural transformation of our economy towards the production of tradable goods," said Silva at the meeting attended by the deputy prime minister, Paulo Portas, the Minister of the Economy, António Pires de Lima, the Health Minister, Paulo Macedo, the Education Minister, Nuno Crato, and the minister of the Environment, Jorge Moreira da Silva.
The Council of the Portuguese Diaspora was created two years ago with the encouragement of Cavaco Silva and has more than 70 directors from about 20 countries.
Earlier in the day Cavaco Silva went through the annual presidential task of selecting prisoners for pardon on humanitarian grounds.
This year the Head of State was presented with 1,224 applications for pardon which he had to assess to see if any of the petitions were worthy of his signature.
Last year, Cavaco Silva granted only two pardons after reviewing 251 pleas for clemency.
These applications are assessed with reference to the opinions of the sentencing judges, prison directors, reports from prison services and any input from the Ministry of Justice.
In 2012, Cavaco Silva granted two pardons having reviewed 205 applications, and in 2011 two were granted from 225 pleas.
This year, of the 1,224 petitions that were received, Cavaco Silva pardoned three foreign citizens serving prison sentences in Portugal.
The president’s office today reported that "Humanitarian reasons were the foundations that formed the basis of the leniency granted."
Comments
the worrying problem for those of us who actually want Portugal to 'get better' and so start paying us back what they have taken from us - is that there really will be EU cheques in the post until at least 2020.
11 million euros a day to continue to fritter away.
Going to exactly the same rodents, with exactly the same non-existent controls and supervision by the same related rodents .... as before.
So no improvement ?
If it was so important for so many hundreds of thousands of Portuguese to be 'bad European Union citizens' ... in cheating each other and foreigners and avoiding tax paying at all costs. And constant misbehaviour.
And for their leadership to be corruptly giving favours and accepting bribes and leaving the philosophy of Salazar and his structure of control in place ... how easy is it to step away from all this ?
Surely no-one ever accused the now Pres.Silva of being 100% clean; reporting anyone seeking favours or offering bribes. (To whom ??)
In the last 40 years - those heady Wild West times such behaviour would not have got him in charge of a milk float - let alone becoming Prime Minister and later President.
The transition will take decades ... does the European Union have the time? Or given all its other problems - the interest ?
Particularly as Portugal will also need decades to become only ever a small net positive contributor to the EU. Rather than a perennial drain on it.
To be fair, Cavaco Silva in this instance did have a few choice Ministers in the audience who should have felt at least a twinge of guilt that he was addressing them as his 'it's an illusion' assertion is contrary to the pre-election guff that we will be subject to from now until the next coalition is elected.
But you are right, Editor, the glorious Cidadela de Cascais is luxurious and comfortable, far too good for a collection of windbags.
Like much of what the President says, this speech is vacuous tosh, except for the bit about someone having to pay the bill. Who will pay for this pathetic shindig?
Consider what passes for Public Administration here and the role and remit of the Public Administration Ombudsman - the Provedor de Justiça.
You don't have to have a failed business plan, stolen from you by the local Municipal and re-enacted by a local competitor (should your business have ever progressed) ... or ridiculously unreasonable quotes for a building renovation that the Municipal should 'control' via the Valor das Obras ..... to know clearly that the Portuguese elite never intended anything remotely like what the EU intended.
The Provedor de Justiça intentionally does not have any powers to force changes.
So a pointless 'request' by the Provedor for the Local Admin. to do the correct, right thing, when all along they well knew they were in the wrong gets you no where.
And in taking your complaint further to the courts, at mind blowing expense, you have fed the Public Administration your best shots.
At best the judge throwing it out as 'confusion due to language'.
As votes and personal gain is so enmeshed in what passes for a "system of governance" So needing a different route to the decision makers.
But clearly the blinkered mindset remains. .... illusion to think that the country's problems are solved.... (needing) credible information and reasoned analysis"
The Portuguese could make a great start by re-writing their history books. They are the source of their inferiority and hence their total unsuitability to be in the EU.
Has it ever made sense for Portugal to attempt for 28 years to be a member of a club - as a supposed adult - that had the same members who had, as you teach it - so bullied you as a child ?
A childhood in which Portugal bizarrely claims to have been a 'global power' !!! Don't laugh !
Portugal has proved so conclusively with its odious racism, an impossibility for them to progress and lift their burden on the European Union ....