Government’s fragile hold on power starts shredding
Parliament yesterday approved the end of motorway tolls – deemed illegal 14 years ago – on ‘formerly SCUT highways’, overriding the government but bringing justice to populations that have been fighting the unpopular charges since they were brought in in 2011.
The ‘good news’ is that motorways constructed with EU funding to ‘open up territories’ and power development will now return to being ‘free’ (which was the whole purpose behind them from the outset).
The roads include the Algarve’s only motorway, the A22.
Elsewhere, tolls will be eliminated on the A28 (Viana do Castelo-Porto-Viseu-Vilar Formoso), the A4 (Bragança – Vila Real), the A24 (Vila Real – Viseu), the A13 (Coimbra-Torres Novas) and A23 (Guarda-Castelo Branco-Torres Novas).
The bad news is more convoluted: first, the tolls will not be eliminated before January 2025; second, their cancelling went against the policy of the fragile AD government, which took office hearing from the president that the way forwards could only be with “a lot of dialogue”. That dialogue appears to have been lacking to the point that scenes yesterday in parliament showed Portugal’s new government is already losing the little ground that it appeared to have secured.
Few MPs in parliament yesterday saw the PS proposal to abolish tolls as anything more than an expedient political form of ‘chess move’. This is the party, after all, that has perpetuated the tolls for eight years, and which said, shortly before it fell last November, that their abolishment was ‘less and less likely’, certainly in the short and medium term.
Come the elections – and the change of party leader – and tolls became one of the pledges of the party: they would be going as soon as a new Socialist PM took the reins of power.
The ‘new Socialist PM’ part didn’t happen, but this proposal has managed to ‘do the job’ (or at least appear to do the job). There is no telling what will happen between today and January 2025 to potentially change yesterday’s vote.
For now, the battered executive is accusing PS Socialists and CHEGA of trying to rule from parliament (something they have just shown they can do very easily).
PS Socialists insist yesterday’s combined voting (supported also by Bloco de Esquerda, PCP communists, LIVRE and PAN) had nothing to do with an agreement with CHEGA – and CHEGA has managed to have its cake and eat it: the party criticised the PS for the “hypocrisy” of the proposal, but said it could not vote against anything that would make life easier for Portuguese people.
“Once more the government of Luís Montenegro is on the wrong side of history”, crowed CHEGA leader André Ventura.
The government now has the fairly hideous task of “working with the concessionaires” (the companies with State contracts to manage the ex-SCUT highways and charge drivers for their use), stressing the bill for this one vote could end up being around €1.5 billion.
Pre-elections, PS Socialists estimated the decision would cost the taxpayer €157 million – which the party said was well within the capability of State accounts.
That, of course, was before the ‘other issue’ that rose up over the Bank Holiday: the fact that the budget surplus that the last government triumphantly declared to Brussels at the end of last year, managed to reduce considerably, even after the election defeat – adding almost one billion euros to ‘bills’ the AD executive will now have to pay.
Leader writers are in no doubts as to what this all means. Says Carlos Rodrigues, Editorial director general of Correio da Manhã, the country is now in the hands of the “political schizophrenia of two governments of the Republic” – one that is technically in power, with no control, and another that is running its next election campaign.
In the short term (and it will be short), citizens can expect “a succession of good news” – votes like yesterday’s ‘delivering justice’ for which PS Socialists, CHEGA et al have no responsibility when it comes to paying the price.
“We’re heading for a budgetary powder keg, with the foot hard down on the accelerator”, he concludes.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
