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Carvalho, Pedro
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4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Portugal tormets its citizens with more taxes
Portugal's Minister of Finances Vitor Gaspar on Monday announced drastic tax hikes as well as billions in cutbacks for the coming year. There were vehement protests in front of parliament against the measures, which both opposition and trade unions have harshly criticised. For the liberal business paper Diário Económico the budget is a joke no one can laugh about: "This budget is an insult to the Portuguese, a capitulation on the part of the government, a slap in the face for the middle class and a punch in the stomach for the civil servants and pensioners. Companies scratch their heads, the poor and penniless raise their arms to the heavens and for the jobless we must pray. This budget combines a hallucinatory realism with a touch of humour and surrealism by raising taxes for everything that moves. And when we stop moving, we're dead."
» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Tax Policy, » Unrest / Riots, » Portugal
Draghi doesn't want to help Portugal
Around a month after ECB president Mario Draghi announced potential unlimited purchases of the bonds of crisis states, the bank has yet to buy a single Portuguese bond. After Draghi explained the reasons to journalists, Pedro Carvalho writes in the liberal business paper Diário Económico that he is completely baffled: "He said that countries that have been given bailouts will only receive help in the form of supportive bond purchases once they have regained full access to the markets. [Portugal has so far only tested a return to the markets through positive bond auctions] ... Did I understand him correctly? We need the ECB to be able to return to the markets in 2013, but the ECB will only help us once we've already achieved this? Has everyone gone mad? Draghi's statements demonstrate that the new programme was not developed for peripheral countries like Portugal, Greece and Ireland: no, it was tailored to the needs of Spain and Italy. They also show that all the austerity measures that Portugal is in such a rush to implement could ultimately fail owing to a lack of investor confidence and the absence of a central bank."
» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Banks, » Portugal
Salary cuts in Portugal scrapped
Portugal's liberal-conservative government has scrapped plans to increase social contributions in 2013. After vehement protests against the measure on Friday the government announced that it would seek alternatives. The liberal business paper Diário Económico praises President Aníbal Cavaco Silva for calming the mood in the country by pulling strings behind the scenes: "At around 1 a.m. on Saturday morning the Council of State [the president's advisory committee] issued the measure's death certificate in the presence of an inconsolable minister of finances. ... Portugal's president thus solved in one go two problems that had been dragging the country down: the announcement of indirect salary cuts and the resulting political crisis that had threatened to tear the government apart. After two weeks of pointless manoeuvring Prime Minister Passos Coelho has been clever enough to turn a new page just in time. … Many challenges now await Passos Coelho. The first and most important is to make peace with the Portuguese. He still has a long way to go in this respect."
» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Portugal
Some countries more equal than others in Europe
The decision to forego mandatory spending cuts in exchange for the bailout package for Spain's struggling banks shows that the same standards do not apply for all crisis countries, writes the business paper Diário Económico: "With Spain the abbreviation PIGS [Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain] is now complete. ... Like in George Orwell's Animal Farm, some animals in the EU are simply more equal than others. Unlike Portugal, Ireland and Greece, Madrid will receive billions in aid without having to impose any austerity measures. ... But when Lisbon tries to negotiate better conditions for their own pacts the gentlemen in Brussels have the cheek to label this as abstruse. The pep-talk text message Prime Minister Rajoy sent his economics minister on Saturday says it all: 'Hang in there, Spain is the fourth-largest economy - not Uganda.' This may be true, but when you look at the balance of power and the favourable conditions (or rather lack of conditions) for Spain's bailout package, as a Portuguese you do feel a bit Ugandan."
» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Portugal
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