Portugal’s hope of ending the economic crisis lies, we heard this week, in its youth. The surprise news – considering so much of Portugal’s youth has been forced to emigrate in the last two years or been consigned to frustrating job queues – comes from the Prime Minister.
PM Pedro Passos Coelho was commenting on the difficulties younger generations have been facing since the beginning of the economic crisis in a speech during an award ceremony for youth associations at Palácio Foz in Lisbon last weekend.
Passos Coelho ended up speaking for over 25 minutes, although he said at the beginning of his speech that he would not be talking at all.
“I believe it would not be appropriate,” he said. Still, he went on that he wanted to “stress two or three aspects which were relevant on such an important date” – referring to December 1, which used to be a national holiday celebrating the country’s independence from Castellan reign in 1640, but has since been cut as part of the country’s austerity measures and bid to increase productivity.
Although Passos Coelho said he is aware that “all of Portugal’s population has been called on” to help the country through these times, he admitted young people “may provide more depth to the effort of preventing similar situations from ever happening again in the future”.
He went on to express his “deep confidence” in a generation which he considered “the most qualified we have had in history”.
“If we have such a qualified generation, then we put our hopes into them so that the social and economic transformations that we need to go through can be deeper than those we have accomplished in the past,” he said, adding that “all the investments made in qualifying and educating our youth will be critical” in overcoming the crisis the country is going through.
“We are now more qualified to reinvent our future and avoid the occurrence of new crises,” Passos Coelho added.
But the facts are that Portugal’s younger generations are being forced to emigrate in order to achieve professional fulfilment. Forecasts by the European Commission show that Portugal will be the only country among those who were subject to financial adjustments by the Troika to see its resident population drop between the beginning of the crisis and 2015. The EC points towards a 1.3% decrease, which represents around 130,000 people.
“That is why it hurts us so much to see those who are most developed and evolved in terms of the knowledge they obtained academically having to leave in order to obtain internships or professional fulfilment,” Passos Coelho admitted.
To the Portuguese youngsters who decide to stay in the country, the Prime Minister left a message of hope – at the same time warning that the future will not be easy.
“Younger generations know now that in order to achieve the same levels of fulfilment and prosperity that their parents and grandparents achieved, they will have to work much harder”.
This is “unequivocal”, he said. Passos Coelho believes that both the younger generations as well as the population in general will be required to work much harder in the coming 20 years than in the past two decades.
That is why the Portuguese leader believes that it is normal for younger people to feel “more anguish” in the face of the country’s problems than those who can remember past crises.
“I remember having gone through similar times, not exactly the same, but very similar, between 1983 and 1985. And I also remember going through some very delicate problems in 1977 and 1978,” the prime minister recalled – referring to one of the country’s worst economic crises and the period shortly following the country’s revolution in 1974.
“I also remember arriving from Angola not that long ago and having to wake up very early to get in line for some milk. Essential products were heavily rationed.”
At the end of his speech, Passos Coelho mentioned the date of December 1 once again – which for the first time is not a national holiday – after defending that the end of debt should be the main focus of all current political debates.
He told those present at the ceremony that ideological debates should not affect the government’s decision-making process nor should they compromise future generations.
Passos Coelho explained that some people want to spend the country’s money in one way, while others want to spend it in another. But he believes it is useless to discuss how to spend money that the country does not have.
He considered this point the most important on a day like December 1 which “despite not being a holiday anymore” still celebrates the restoration of the country’s sovereignty.
By Michael Bruxo news@algarveresident.com
