The government is implementing a highly controversial privatization, privatization of TAP, which is currently 100% owned by the Portuguese State. The company flies to 80 destinations in 36 countries, running about 2,000 weekly flights, and has a fleet of 55 Airbus aircraft and 16 other planes flying subsidiary Portugalia Airlines. And without recourse to state aid in the past 20 years, made between 2004 and 2013, significant investments:. 698.8 million euros
It is a precious asset of the Portuguese who has not only a very high quality of service it provides, as indeed evidenced by the numerous awards it has received, yet a strategic value in the binding of bulky Portuguese diaspora to the country as well as to Portugal Lusophone space. Further, part of the TAP universe air transport companies conglomerate has generated successive profits, some EUR 178 million in accumulated, 2009-2013. Rather, it is the “TAP Maintenance and Engineering Brazil” that has generated huge losses. Once this context, I clarify my purpose in this article: use the privatization of TAP as a paradigmatic example of the right of government in power since 2011, in four dimensions: ideological fanaticism; failed results; discrediting of political action; skewed conception of political commitment.
1. Ideological fanaticism
It is true that the government and the parties supporting it (PSD and CDS-PP) always said they wanted to go beyond the Troika . This was not only the IMF Memorandum of Understanding, the EC and the ECB with the government of Portugal, was the program that the country needed because I had lived beyond their means, was therefore the PSD program itself but in version light . But the right, especially the PSD also always said he did not want to cut wages or pensions, or Christmas bonuses and vacation, this would not be necessary. What about the cuts in the state (Social) and public services, the PSD always said I wanted to just “cut the fat” in the intermediate costs, and without being precise redundancies. Actually has gone far beyond the Troika and its own promises, governing without political mandate. And has been doing quite asymmetrically, which clearly shows that there is, or was, no “Damocles sword” under the head of the executive; yes there is, above all, ideological fanaticism. Here are some examples. Between 2011 and September 2014, the government reduced twice as public employment, about 4% per year, compared to the Troika provided, 2%; in the period, the Government has lost about 79,898 workers, about 11% of the total. And the starting point was already low: at the end of 2011, the public employment weighed about 15% of employment on average in OECD countries; in Portugal was only 11%. The cuts in health, education and social security as well as the scale of privatization, were also far beyond the Troika , ie not only reached “fats”, arrived at the very core of ” filet mignon “(see, for example, the Daily News of 14.04.2014 in case of Education). The government always likes to hide behind the Troika , at least since things started to go wrong and governance without mandate came up to speed (end of 2011), but the truth is that, as already emphasized the new leader of the PS, the memorandum does not justify such obsession right with the sale of TAP. First, because only provided for the partial privatization of large enterprises and the government wants, at least over time, full privatization. Second, estimated that such privatization plan reached a cash inflow of EUR 5.5 billion and has already reached about 8 billion: “ The plan targets front-loaded proceeds of about € [5.5 ] billion through the end of the program, with only partial divestment envisaged for all large Firms (emphasis added). ” That is, the government likes to hide behind the Troika , but not the Troika is still here, not the memo legitimizes this ideological fanaticism, also supported by presidential pleasure.
2. Failed results
Note that many of the large companies that have been privatized by this Government (ANA, CP Carga, EDP, REN, CTT, Caixa Seguros), and executive previous (also socialists: the privatization effort has long gripped the European center-left, especially with Washington consensus of the winds and the third way, hence the decline of ideological differences that undermines European democracies) are natural monopolies and often quite profitable. Therefore, except for some very strong external constraint, privatization, especially full, is triply wrong: because it goes against those who defend the functioning of economies under the logic of the market; because it creates a rentier capitalism; because it deprives the state of financial plugins. But it could be argued that such privatization would be useful for us to pay our debts. Nothing more misleading, and hence the failure of governance: public debt was 71.7% of GDP in 2008, 108.1% in 2011, and about 129.0% at the end of 2013; for 2014 are estimated at 130%; more, by 2009-2010 Portugal had a ratio of debt to GDP almost equal (or slightly above) the average of the Eurozone; since the trajectory of divergence is dug and stood up in 2013, a huge distance: 129% for Portugal, 92.6% for the Eurozone. From this point of view, the futility of this effort privatization revealed in all its splendor. Additionally, the tragic effects of the cuts “troikistas more than Troika ” in Health, in education, in social security, with a very strong deterioration of public services provided, show that beyond the futility there perverse efetios. Did someone say success of “adjustment”? To rescue the country from collapse?
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