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?
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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]