There are many reasons that call for the presentation at this time of a motion of censure on the government and the policy of the PS [Socialist Party] and José Socrates [Prime Minister].
During the last three years, continuing and worsening previous guidelines, the policy of the PS government has been a policy of impoverishment, injustice and inequality. A policy of clear benefit to the great interests and heavy sacrifices on the population in general. A succession of unfulfilled promises!
The presentation by the government of a package of changes to the Labour Code, in articulation with a change in the labour legislation of Public Administration, made it indispensable to submit a motion of censure that we now announce.
The proposals presented, wrapped in a mystifying propaganda operation, represent a frontal attack on the rights of the workers, a formal declaration of war on the Portuguese workers and, if not defeated, a sharp social regression.
It means making individual dismissals easier, turning precarious all workers and increasing the frailty of those who already are. It means further deregulating working times, placing the decision on the employer’s arbitrariness.
It means promoting a reduction of salaries and wages.
It means retaining the elimination of the principle of a more favorable treatment, increasing the employers’ weapons to compress labour rights.
It means trying to liquidate collective bargaining through its caducity, questioning rights gained over the years.
It means giving legitimacy and legalizing precariousness under the excuse of fighting it.
It means jeopardizing compatibility between professional life and personal and family life, creating difficulties to give support to the children during their life as children and youth, as if this support was only needed during the first nine months.
It means debilitating and weakening Trade Union organization and giving free rein to the employers.
It means doing the opposite of that which the PS promised while in opposition and widening the path opened by Bagão Félix [a previous right wing Labour Minister] and the PSD/CDS-PP government.
And if all these reasons by themselves justify a very strong political and social response and a not lesser censure, there are many other reasons why to the PCP this motion of censure is imperative and unavoidable.
During these three years the salaries of most of the workers went down, especially those of the public administration. The pensions and retirement pay has remained at an unacceptable low level, and often suffered real diminution compared to inflation.
The youth see their situation worsening and face a future full of uncertainties with low wages, precarity in labour links ( short term contracts, casual labour, research scholarships and traineeships) that risk their life’s organization and stability, create difficulties in obtaining housing and threaten their labour rights.
At the same time the profits of the banks and great economic groups increased significantly.
During these three years the direct and indirect taxes on the workers and even the pensioners increased, while retaining huge tax benefits for the financial sectors and scandalous possibilities of fiscal planning for the great economic groups in general.
At the same time the taxes paid by the financial sector decreased, even with the increase in their profits.
We continue to have a model of development based on low wages and the exploitation of workers, which also leads to the abandon of the national productive sector.
The prices of essential goods and services increased.
The government decided to close thousands of public services around the country.
Public Administration and its workers were a preferential target of the government policies, aiming at degrading the rights, the access and quality of services, opening the way to their submission to private or party interests.
Healthcare is farther from the populations and increasingly more expensive. While the National Health Service is systematically subject to financial restrictions and lack of personnel, the private sector flourishes at the cost of public funding and a smaller response from the public services.
Public schooling is subject to a furious attack, with shortage of means, the penalization of teachers and other professionals, the weakening of student rights and a general degradation of education and learning.
Higher education is increasingly subordinated to mercantilist and elitist guidelines, moving away from the goals of education and development that should guide it.
Scientific policy aggravates its subordination to foreign interests, instead of the national ones, transferring higher resources to foreign institutions, while the national ones wither without sufficient financing and scientific staff.
The State is increasingly held hostage by the great economic interests. The whirlwind of ministers and other responsible persons between state duties and economic groups worsens.
National sovereignty surrenders to the diktats of the European Union and NATO.
We are aware of the present composition of the Assembly of the Republic. We know that the presentation of a motion of censure is a parliamentary initiative that cannot nor should not be made banal. But the situation into which the government policy is drawing the country makes it imperative to submit The Motion of Censure. It is nor possible to ignore neither the very serious political, economic and social situation nor the government offensive against the rights and the dignity of the workers and the population in general. With this Motion of Censure we want to give expression to a firm condemnation of the policies contrary to the interests of the workers and the people.
With this Motion of Censure we want to give voice to the vast front of struggle, protest, discontent, anguish and revolt felt by hundreds of thousands of Portuguese.
With this Motion of Censure we want to affirm the demand of a rupture with the right-wing policy and a different course towards a fairer country!
We are confident that this motion of censure voices the deepest feelings of the majority of the Portuguese people.
