Portugal’s government is moving on contingency measures for the most vulnerable as the energy crisis prompted by the war in the Middle East shows little sign of calming.
Yesterday in parliament, the prime minister announced a €10 increase in the government subsidy for ‘solidarity gas bottles’ (gas for the most vulnerable), as well as a discount on professional diesel (directed at delivery companies/ passenger transports/ fire stations and taxi drivers) – and today the Council of Ministers will be meeting to approve legislation to ‘limit prices in a situation of energetic crisis’ and ‘protect the most vulnerable consumers with guarantees of minimum supply”.
Regarding the measures already announced: these involve the solidarity component on gas bottles increasing to €25 for the next three months, and a discount of 10 cents per litre on professional diesel (up to a limit of 15,000 litres per vehicle), also for the next three months.
Opposition parties immediately said the government’s measures did not go far enough – but the consensus among political commentators is that ‘no one can tell how long this crisis will go on, nor how bad it will get’. Thus, starting slowly to try and fend off some of the damage is perhaps ‘the most prudent option’.
However much the opposition likes to criticise the government, prime minister Luís Montenegro stressed yesterday that it is “sensitive to the impact that fuel increases have had on the life of Portuguese people, and will accompany the evolution of the international situation”.
Source material: noticiasaominuto/ Correio da Manhã
