Portugal's crisis of confidence (?!!)
Ou os "Amigalhaços de Peniche"?
Este artigo do Guardian revela duas questões:
Os ingleses voltaram à carga após a desdita de Peniche, e, em vez de andarem a falar da 'casa' dos outros, mais valia falarem da deles! Ou será que não têm 'porcaria' suficiente onde se debruçar?!
Viraram as baterias cá para o 'burgo', é provável que estejam a sentir os calos pisados!
Government resignations and a paedophilia scandal have sent faith in Portuguese state institutions plummeting, says Giles Tremlett
- The Guardina, Tuesday October 14, 2003
Only a few years ago, Portugal was flushed with pride and optimism.
With its economy rocketing, the frustrations of being Europe's poorest cousin were beginning to disappear.
Now, the country is asking itself where it all went wrong. Two ministers have resigned over corruption allegations, and the public has been transfixed by a paedophile scandal involving senior politicians and diplomats.
As a result, Portugal has been plunged into a crisis of confidence in its state institutions which is as bad as, or worse than, the one already afflicting its ailing economy.
The most recent blow to the country's rightwing prime minister, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, has been the double loss of his foreign minister, Antonio Martins da Cruz, and the higher education minister, Pedro Lynce.
Both resigned in disgrace following a scandal involving the education of the former's 18-year-old daughter, Diana.
It was, on the face of it, a simple piece of favouritism from one minister to another. Diana was given a place at Lisbon university, to read medicine, after Mr Lynce decided that she did not need to pass the entrance exams.
Both men denied any deliberate favouritism or nepotism, but few have been convinced by Mr Lynce's protestations of innocence. Mr Martins da Cruz, according to some, may be a victim of his over-zealous attempts to please a powerful cabinet colleague.
Either way, the Portuguese people perceive a culture of cronyism in the highest spheres of government, and the public prosecutor's office is now investigating.
The twin resignations brought to three the number of ministers who have been forced to leave Mr Durao Barroso's 18-month-old cabinet so far.
The environment minister, Isaltino Morais, resigned in April after reports began to circulate that he had evaded taxes through undeclared accounts in Swiss banks.
A fourth senior cabinet member, the defence minister Paulo Portas, has also found himself involved in a corruption scandal.
In June, Mr Portas testified as a witness - for more than six hours - at the embezzlement trial of 13 people, involving financial links between the private Moderna university and a polling institute that he once ran.
Army chief general Jose Manuel da Silva Viegas resigned in July, saying he "mistrusted" Mr Portas, whose position as the head of a minority party holding the balance of power in the Lisbon parliament makes him a political untouchable.
The corruption allegations swamping Mr Durao Barroso's government come as Portugal looks on, aghast, at what might well be the worst case of institutional corruption and negligence ever seen in the country.
For the past ten months, a scandal over an alleged paedophile ring at Portugal's most famous state orphanage has grown and grown, with a former minister, a senior ambassador and a television presenter all having been arrested.
Of most concern, however, is that allegations of systematic abuse at the Casa Pia orphanage go back two decades - and have, until now, been ignored by police and politicians.
The former secretary of state for families, Teresa Costa Macedo, first sent a dossier, containing photographs and testimonies from children, to police 20 years ago.
Earlier this year, she denounced the existence of a "huge paedophile network that involved important people ... who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media."
One of those named, the former Socialist party labour minister, Paulo Pedroso, was last week released from jail after four months. He still faces charges, which he has denied.
Mr Durao Barroso has insisted that part of his job, apart from trying to refloat an economy that is due to contract by 0.3% this year, is to clean up Portugal's administration.
The resignations of Mr Lynce and Mr Martins da Cruz show, say his supporters, how serious he is about that. For many Portuguese, however, it is just depressing confirmation that those in power routinely use that power to help one another.
As they cope with tax hikes, public spending cuts and job losses - part of the package that they voted in with Mr Durao Barroso last March - these problems are the last thing they want to see.
"This strikes against the government's most important political capital: the image of rigour, transparency and reasonableness that made the Portuguese people ready to make the sacrifices the prime minister asked from them," says political analyst Pedro Magalhaes.
It is all a far cry from late 90s, when Lisbon hosted a successful expo, and a huge investment programme in football stadiums was started, so that all would be ready for hosting the 2004 European championship.
However, according to Transparency International, an organisation that grades countries by the degree of corruption they show, all is not lost.
Portugal has been rated 25th on the list for 2003, just behind France and Spain, but well ahead of Italy and Greece.
Este artigo do Guardian revela duas questões:
Os ingleses voltaram à carga após a desdita de Peniche, e, em vez de andarem a falar da 'casa' dos outros, mais valia falarem da deles! Ou será que não têm 'porcaria' suficiente onde se debruçar?!
Viraram as baterias cá para o 'burgo', é provável que estejam a sentir os calos pisados!
Government resignations and a paedophilia scandal have sent faith in Portuguese state institutions plummeting, says Giles Tremlett
- The Guardina, Tuesday October 14, 2003
Only a few years ago, Portugal was flushed with pride and optimism.
With its economy rocketing, the frustrations of being Europe's poorest cousin were beginning to disappear.
Now, the country is asking itself where it all went wrong. Two ministers have resigned over corruption allegations, and the public has been transfixed by a paedophile scandal involving senior politicians and diplomats.
As a result, Portugal has been plunged into a crisis of confidence in its state institutions which is as bad as, or worse than, the one already afflicting its ailing economy.
The most recent blow to the country's rightwing prime minister, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, has been the double loss of his foreign minister, Antonio Martins da Cruz, and the higher education minister, Pedro Lynce.
Both resigned in disgrace following a scandal involving the education of the former's 18-year-old daughter, Diana.
It was, on the face of it, a simple piece of favouritism from one minister to another. Diana was given a place at Lisbon university, to read medicine, after Mr Lynce decided that she did not need to pass the entrance exams.
Both men denied any deliberate favouritism or nepotism, but few have been convinced by Mr Lynce's protestations of innocence. Mr Martins da Cruz, according to some, may be a victim of his over-zealous attempts to please a powerful cabinet colleague.
Either way, the Portuguese people perceive a culture of cronyism in the highest spheres of government, and the public prosecutor's office is now investigating.
The twin resignations brought to three the number of ministers who have been forced to leave Mr Durao Barroso's 18-month-old cabinet so far.
The environment minister, Isaltino Morais, resigned in April after reports began to circulate that he had evaded taxes through undeclared accounts in Swiss banks.
A fourth senior cabinet member, the defence minister Paulo Portas, has also found himself involved in a corruption scandal.
In June, Mr Portas testified as a witness - for more than six hours - at the embezzlement trial of 13 people, involving financial links between the private Moderna university and a polling institute that he once ran.
Army chief general Jose Manuel da Silva Viegas resigned in July, saying he "mistrusted" Mr Portas, whose position as the head of a minority party holding the balance of power in the Lisbon parliament makes him a political untouchable.
The corruption allegations swamping Mr Durao Barroso's government come as Portugal looks on, aghast, at what might well be the worst case of institutional corruption and negligence ever seen in the country.
For the past ten months, a scandal over an alleged paedophile ring at Portugal's most famous state orphanage has grown and grown, with a former minister, a senior ambassador and a television presenter all having been arrested.
Of most concern, however, is that allegations of systematic abuse at the Casa Pia orphanage go back two decades - and have, until now, been ignored by police and politicians.
The former secretary of state for families, Teresa Costa Macedo, first sent a dossier, containing photographs and testimonies from children, to police 20 years ago.
Earlier this year, she denounced the existence of a "huge paedophile network that involved important people ... who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media."
One of those named, the former Socialist party labour minister, Paulo Pedroso, was last week released from jail after four months. He still faces charges, which he has denied.
Mr Durao Barroso has insisted that part of his job, apart from trying to refloat an economy that is due to contract by 0.3% this year, is to clean up Portugal's administration.
The resignations of Mr Lynce and Mr Martins da Cruz show, say his supporters, how serious he is about that. For many Portuguese, however, it is just depressing confirmation that those in power routinely use that power to help one another.
As they cope with tax hikes, public spending cuts and job losses - part of the package that they voted in with Mr Durao Barroso last March - these problems are the last thing they want to see.
"This strikes against the government's most important political capital: the image of rigour, transparency and reasonableness that made the Portuguese people ready to make the sacrifices the prime minister asked from them," says political analyst Pedro Magalhaes.
It is all a far cry from late 90s, when Lisbon hosted a successful expo, and a huge investment programme in football stadiums was started, so that all would be ready for hosting the 2004 European championship.
However, according to Transparency International, an organisation that grades countries by the degree of corruption they show, all is not lost.
Portugal has been rated 25th on the list for 2003, just behind France and Spain, but well ahead of Italy and Greece.
publicado por MP às 01:14
