Catarina Martins, the feisty and recently empowered leader of the Left Bloc, said today that all state pensions will be unfrozen and that those who are receiving low pensions will see an increase.
The Socialist Party, the Communists and the Left Bloc are deep in negotiation with the aim of presenting a left wing solution that can be accepted as an alternative to the minority coalition that currently leads the country.
The left wing coup is planned for November 11th when the left-of-centre parties will propose a vote of 'no confidence' in the Passos Coelho-Paulo Portas righ wing coalition.
Martins admitted that the pension situation is a complex one but insists that there is left wing party agreement on the need for a recovery in Portuguese incomes. Part of this is to unfreeze pensions and allow the released cash to work its way through the economy.
Agreement between the Left Bloc and the Socialist Party is not easy as "the convergence processes are complex, but we are working towards what we consider as the best alternative," said Martins.
One of the areas that all of those currently in opposition agree on is "that all income must be thawed, pensions and wages, for an earnings recovery."
"The political commitment we are making allows pensioners to recover their pensions over the period of the legislature," said Martins, adding that "if we had a right-wing government people would lose out from cuts, if we had a Socialist Party government, pensions would remain frozen.”
"What I can say now is that there is agreement that all pensions will be unfrozen.”
Comments
Being aware is not nearly enough ! As with Greece - the Troika tell us that there still is a massive shortfall of billions in what the Portuguese 'tax take' gets in and what it intends to be paying out in pensions. And Portugal does not allow anyone to escape and save privately for their pension which is a no no to entrepreneurs.
And what is this xenophobia nonsense? Show me a list and contact details of British owner / manager businesses in Portugal established in the last 30 years. If there is parity with the thousands of active Portuguese in the UK there will be thousands of these 'effective occupiers' in Portugal.
Yes and this is because governments are mostly controlled by big business interests who don't want to have to pay pensions to the little people. The CEOs are of course well provided for in retirement even when they are forced out in disgrace.
I can see that I hit the nail in the head!
if at least I was Portuguese... my nationality is from further down south.
So, you don't know the difference between xenophobia (at which many of you excel) and racism.
"As always in Portugal there is a total ignorance of what activities actually generates the public sector wages and pensions! "
that line, along with many others aimed to belittle the Portuguese are most certainly xenophobic and obviously inaccurate.
Obviously everyone in Portugal is aware of the fact that taxes and social security contributions are essential to pay Pensions, because the Portuguese public pension system is not based on capitalization but instead on redistribution (which is something that should have changed in the 1990's).
There was a proposal to permanently allocate a part of the VAT tax revenues to finance the social security (which includes the pension system).
unfortunately xenophobia, europhobia and particularly lusophobia are rampant among many "expats" communities, it must be an attempt to sound bourgeois that drives such hateful sentiments towards those who welcomed you and welcomed me.
the british invented the stupid idea that Portugal is racial blind, so, you can take back that strawman.
Its strange that over a week ago the english news press worldwide described Cavaco Silva as having launched a 'coup' for his right wing agenda.
Making it clear how pivotal this presses language is to world thinking - the Portugal Resident rushes to tell us that .....
Portuguese journalists writing (on behalf of the Portuguese Government?) in the US and UK have been quick to explain, “what happened in Portugal was not a coup”. Now commenters here and elsewhere are telling us it is being described as a left wing coup !
And eco somehow sees racism in Malcolm questioning where the money to pay public sector pensions comes from? Racism anyway is not possible in Portugal as every Portuguese is 'race blind' and foreigners don't count, so a laughable accusation from a Portuguese!
http://portugalresident.com/cavaco-unrepentant-over-speech-dubbed-%E2%80%9Ccoup-d%E2%80%99%C3%A9tat%E2%80%9D-as-government-due-to-present-programme-on
Partly because government has never enacted sufficiently strong protective legislation around pension funds.
In today´s world, no one will be able to provide an adequate pension. It looks as if today´s youngsters will have to work on until they are 70 at least; perhaps there will be pensions only in ill-health cases.
Governments have been myopic in their handling of the pension issue; or perhaps they have merely waited for their successors to deal with it. In any case, Bloco de Esquerda has not shown how these pensions will be paid for.
that is the extreme-left sir, they did not won the elections, they are trying a coup d'etat.
the extreme-left is the same everywhere, xenophobia does not win any argument.
A simple question - what proportion of the working population are private sector and of those what proportion actually have pensions to look forward to? That need unfreezing?
As always in Portugal there is a total ignorance of what activities actually generates the public sector wages and pensions!
But Catarina is bonita and the right size to carry about in a lorry cab on long journeys (as long as she is quiet!) - so that makes up for any shortfall in ideas.