‘Democracy has no owner’ (Carlos Moedas, new mayor of Lisbon) The ruling center-left Socialist Party (PS) of prime minister António Costa won the local elections with 34% of the votes. Although less convincing than 4 years ago, when the SP was able to take the lead in 160 of the 308 municipalities. This time the […]
Lack of doctors, just when reinforcement is needed after Covid19 Despite the fact that Catarina Martins – the leader of the Left Bloc (BE) – regards the National Health Service (SNS) as ‘a pearl of democracy’ and its workers ‘heroes and heroines’, working conditions are poor and staff shortages in public health-threatening. Let’s first take […]
‘Portuguese institutions are better prepared now’ – Ghalia Taki, Syrian refugee When Mustafa decided to flee Iraq five years ago and reached Portugal – via Syria, Turkey, and Greece – he was convinced to get asylum quickly. What he didn’t know was that the country was – at that time – ill-prepared in taking care […]
July was the world’s hottest month on record. The planet has reached +1.1°C above pre-industrial levels and is already starting to suffer the consequences with wildfires ravaging the US, Siberia, Greece, and Turkey, floods in Germany, Japan, and China, and thermometers hitting 50°C in Canada. CO2 concentrations continue to rise and global warming is happening […]
‘It’s not right. One turns his back and, suddenly, there are 214,286 Portuguese missing’ (Miguel Cardoso, Portuguese journalist) In the last 10 years, Portugal has lost 214,286 citizens (-2%) according to preliminary data from the 2021 Census, released on 28 July by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). It is the second time that something […]
Portugal is importing nearly 75% of its food and the Mediterranean country with the heaviest per capita food footprint, meaning that if everyone in the world consumes resources like the Portuguese, 2.5 planets earth are needed. The biggest culprit is the country’s exceptional appetite for fish. Portugal is – after Japan and Iceland – the […]
‘China is very powerful, with a clear vision. But it’s a secret state’ – Ai Weiwei The Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei (1957, Beijing) is one of the most influential and creative names in contemporary art.In 2020 he was elected as the most famous artist by the international journal The Art Newspaper. His father, […]
According to Eurostat, Portugal’s GDP dropped this year by 5,4%, the greatest fall in Europe! Rating agency Moody declared, that Portugal is one of the countries most affected by the pandemic as small and medium-sized companies represent a large proportion of the GDP and its high dependency on tourism. The IMF is pessimistic about the […]
‘The elected politician nowadays is more a delegate of the party than a representative of the voter’ (Ramalho Eanes, former President of Portugal) More than 80% of the Portuguese are of the opinion that corruption – is an essential part of business. In the Eurobarometer inquiry, more than three-quarters of the population – who claim […]
God created the black and white man; the Portuguese the mulatto (Anonymous) It is often said that Portugal is not a racist country, despite enormous structural inequalities and decades of documented discrimination. All over the country, you can find monuments and statues dedicated to navigators – glorifying the epic 15th to 17th-century discoveries; crusading missionaries […]