This Tuesday, the PCP organizes a public session on the “myths and realities” regarding the growth of Portugal and its integration into the European Union (EU), in particular with regard to the idea conveyed by the right that the country has gone from the will to from being part of the “leading squad” to now being at the “tail of Europe”, and the solutions it points out to solve this problem.
The event, which takes place this Tuesday, at 2.30 pm, at the Hotel Roma, in Lisbon, will feature the contribution of several members of the PCP, such as the party’s general secretary, Paulo Raimundo, deputy Manuel Loff, MEP Sandra Pereira or Lisbon councilor João Ferreira. But also with academics who have carried out research in this area: Ana Drago, sociologist and former member of the Bloco de Esquerda, Ricardo Paes Mamede, economist and professor at Iscte, or João Carlos Graça, economist and professor at ISEG.
To PÚBLICO, Vasco Cardoso, member of the political commission of the central committee of the PCP, explains that the intention is not to make a “critical evaluation” of this process, but a “more holistic evaluation of the evolution of the country in the last 30 years” and a “deepening of on the structural reforms” necessary in view of the lack of growth in Portugal.
An assessment in “confrontation with the right” and in a “comparative perspective between Portugal and other European countries” which, as the party refers in the official description of the session, share “constraints” that are “inherent” to the “space of European capitalist integration ”, such as the “single currency”.
From the outset, the communists want to oppose the “idea thatand Portugal needed to catch up with the leading pack” through the acceleration of the country’s accession to the European Union which, for the PCP, did not take into account issues such as “preservation of sovereignty” and allied costs such as entry into the “single market” or “privatisation”.
Today, “many of those who proposed this goal”, especially on the right, have propagated the idea that “Portugal was overtaken by other countries in Europe”, in particular, countries of the East like Romania, in terms of GDP per capita (should overcome Portugal in 2024), in an attempt to defend measures that include “making labor laws more flexible” and “taxing large companies” or “liberating economic activity from State control”, maintains Vasco Cardoso.
For the PCP, however, it is necessary to “break with this line” and “not forget to point out different paths”. The “defense of the national interest”, “public control of strategic sectors of the economy” or applying “labor laws consistent with a modern country” are some of the alternative solutions that will be presented in the session.