Portugal's politics and elections

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Have the parties released their manifestos yet? Will PS plan to break from austerity in their second term, or will they remain relatively restrained in their approach?

[Mike88]

Have the parties released their manifestos yet? Will PS plan to break from austerity in their second term, or will they remain relatively restrained in their approach?

Some yes. The main parties that haven't released their manifestos are CDS, PAN and BE, but they will probably release them in the next few days. For the PS, PSD and CDU, I posted previously their main policies:

PS - Socialist Party

- Increase in tax deductions in function of the number of children;
- Move towards the incorporation of the different types of IRS income taxes, eliminating the differences between them;
- Reduction of taxes for the middle class;
- Increase the progressiveness of the IRS, as a corollary of the distributive tax side;
- Tax benefits for electric cars;
- Scrap harmful tax incentives to the environment;
- Creation of the Carbon tax;

- Creation of the National Democratic Literacy Plan;
- Inclusion of the study of the Constitution at all levels of education;
- Creation of the National Citizenship Day, in order to promote democratic values;
- Introduction of gaming to promote the knowledge of fundamental rights and values of citizenship to more younger people;

- Extend the current parity law to all government branches;
- Create greater visibility and intervention of the Portuguese of African and Gypsy origin;
- Strengthen the mechanisms of repression of hate speech, especially in social media networks;
- Creation of an observatory of racism and xenophobia;
- Fighting social segregation by creating incentives for gypsy children to continue in school;
- Creation of quotas for handycap people in the public and private sector;
- Create more mechanisms to establish wage equality between women and men;

- Fighting against domestic abuse, creating an integrated system of signaling of potential victims and aggressors;
- Unifying the data base of victims of domestic abuse;
- Creating a separate justice department to judge crimes of domestic violence;

- Creation of single constituencies (FPTP), at the same time a separate election system to promote proportionality in Parliament;
- Expanding early voting and electronic voting;
- Election of mayors by municipal assemblies, scraping the current system of electing councillors;
- Election of 5 regional committees through an electoral college of mayors, parish presidents;

PSD - Social Democratic Party

- VAT on gas and electricity to be cut from 23% to 6%;
- Increase in tax deductions on education to a maximum of 800 euros;
- Reduction of corporate taxes from 21% to 17%;
- Reduction of the housing tax (IMI) from 0.3% to 0.25%;
- Abolition of the "Mortágua tax", paid by taxpayers with properties above 600,000 euros;

- Financing of public hospitals on the basis of results;
- Contractualisation of family physicians to the private sector and the social sector to give a doctor for 700,000 people without one;
- Enlargement of the SIGIC (waiting lists for surgery)
- Changing the name of the Health ministry to "Ministry of Health Promotion";

Other policies:

- Minimum wage at 700 euros by 2023;
- Increase parenting leave from 20 to 26 weeks for the second child;
- 13 weeks of parenting leave should be shared by the father to ease the mother from the professional point of view;
- Prenatal family allowance increase from 9,150 euros to 18,300 euros per year;
- Markup of the prenatal family allowance in 50% for the second child and 100% for the third child;

- Review of the basic education law;
- Give all the frozen career and wage progressions to teachers in 6 years by give retirements to teachers at age 63 and reduction in number of teachers;
- Universalize access to nurseries and kindergartens between six months and five years;
- More autonomy to basic and high schools to hire staff and be able to collect funds from private donors;
- Flexibility in access in universities, uptake in all secondary schools;
- Develop a new formula to fund the public university system;
- Year zero for students with learning problems;

- Reduction of the number of MPs in Parliament;
- Term limits for MPs;

CDU - Democratic Unitarian Coalition

- Corporate taxes increase to 25%, but for small businesses a reduction to 12,5% and for big companies an increase to 35% for profits of more than 3 million euros;
- IRS rates of 65% and 75% for incomes above 152,000 euros and 500,000 euros, respectively;
- 35 hour day and 25 days of holiday for all workers (private and public);
- Minimum wage increase to 850 euros;
- Reduction in VAT to 21%;

[Mike88]

The PS isn't promising a lot, actually. They are basically banking on the economy and the management of the last 4 years, not to mention their stand in the teachers crisis and now during the truck drivers strike. If in the teachers crisis, the PS was able to present themselves as the party of "fiscal responsibility", putting the PSD in a state of shock, now they are also presenting themselves as the party of "law and order" as they are hitting hard on truck drivers unions and doing everthing to prevent the strike to have an effect on the day by day life of the Portuguese people.

You could say that Costa and the PS are basically asking for a blank cheque.

[Mike88]

Truck drivers strike is cancelled and energy crisis will end at midnight:

https://twitter.com/cidadehojept/status/1163160252784828416

Strike canceled: Workers gathered this afternoon decided to end protest. The dangerous goods drivers' union decided to suspend the strike. The decision comes after a seven-day standstill and after a government-brokered deal failed at a meeting that lasted about 10 hours and ended late on Saturday.

Pundits are considering the strike management as huge success for the government and a huge failure for unions. However, Público newspaper editorial has this title: "Thatcherism with a socialist facade":

The main victim of this whole process was the right to strike. Nothing will be as before. Strikes in vital sectors - doctors, nurses, public transport - may be on their way to extinction.

(...)

António Costa's muscular response, in the face of the agreement of his entire party and half tolerance of the rest of the left, will certainly make jurisprudence. A future right-wing government has this precedent to set. When António Costa says in an interview to Expresso that "at the edge, there can be no distinction between the minimum limits and normal service" we know that a red line has been crossed.

(...)

Apparently Costa has now decided to rule as Margaret Thatcher against the miners strike without anyone in the PS finding it strange, while at the same time those who put him in power - communists and blockists - demonstrate some inability to deal with the issue.

[crals]

I think the support from BE/CDU may have perversely enabled PS to pursue a more right-wing course than they otherwise would have, by nullifying left-wing opposition both in parliament and the streets, in exchange for policies that often ended up hurting the most disadvantaged, such as the 35h for public workers resulting in a further decline of the already fragile public services, namely healthcare. It has been perplexing and even infuriating how some foreign media portray this government as some sort of progressive heroes.

From a left-wing point of view it might be best if at least PCP return to opposition in the next term.

[Farmlands]

I think the support from BE/CDU may have perversely enabled PS to pursue a more right-wing course than they otherwise would have, by nullifying left-wing opposition both in parliament and the streets, in exchange for policies that often ended up hurting the most disadvantaged, such as the 35h for public workers resulting in a further decline of the already fragile public services, namely healthcare. It has been perplexing and even infuriating how some foreign media portray this government as some sort of progressive heroes.

From a left-wing point of view it might be best if at least PCP return to opposition in the next term.

You may be right on the nullification of most left-wing opposition, but this government is still what gave us a higher minimum wage, fairer habitation contracts, etc. which never would have mustered a conservative one. Reminds me of Blair's rule, which got support from nearly everyone, but alienated leftists as well.

[CumbrianLefty]

I think the support from BE/CDU may have perversely enabled PS to pursue a more right-wing course than they otherwise would have, by nullifying left-wing opposition both in parliament and the streets, in exchange for policies that often ended up hurting the most disadvantaged, such as the 35h for public workers resulting in a further decline of the already fragile public services, namely healthcare. It has been perplexing and even infuriating how some foreign media portray this government as some sort of progressive heroes.

From a left-wing point of view it might be best if at least PCP return to opposition in the next term.

You may be right on the nullification of most left-wing opposition, but this government is still what gave us a higher minimum wage, fairer habitation contracts, etc. which never would have mustered a conservative one. Reminds me of Blair's rule, which got support from nearly everyone, but alienated leftists as well.

PS seem to have taken a rightward turn fairly recently tbh, its not hard to see why many other left wingers in Europe were praising them earlier on.

[crals]

Their path hasn't changed though, it has just taken a while for dissatisfaction to brew up. From the beginning their priority has been keeping public finances in order and keeping things cool with the EU, ie. austerity. Which is more than fine by me, the false narrative of "turning the page on of austerity" is what's annoying.

And yes, they've passed some genuinely left-wing policies and have some genuinely left-wing people, but on the whole, as someone who lives in the country, their government feels like a scam, giving with one hand and taking with the other. Alas, still probably more competent than the mess Rui Rio is turning out to be.

[Mike88]

Crals and Farmlands both are right. Yes, the PS hasn't changed its positions on fiscal/economic issues and, yes, Costa and the PS could be compared to Blair as he tried, quite successfully until it started to fail spectacularly, to be the only solution to both left and right, Tories liked Blair at some degree in the early 2000's.

But, you have to realize that the current government solution is more a practical one than ideological. There's basically nothing in common between PS and BE/CDU on the main issues, and yes, some leftwing policies were passed, but that's just the price you have to pay because in the big picture, the PS main policies, moderate/centrist ones, are the norm. In 2015, the left was shocked to see that the PSD/CDS coalition was able to win an election. This was something no one would ever dream about. In early 2015 if someone said "the PSD/CDS will win by 6-7% points over the PS", that person would be label as mental. The shock result of PSD/CDS, forced the 3 parties, PS, BE and CDU, to take a strong stance. PS started to panic as they lost the "most easy election in decades" and were fearfull of BE strong result, as if the PS went ahead with the traditional route of "supporting" a PSD/CDS minority, they risked alienating many leftwing people in the party and making the BE even more stronger. CDU was also in a state of shock as it failed to meet expectations and, once again, was bellow BE. The CDU knew that if they didn't support a PS minority, they would be accused of throwing away the possibility of getting rid of Passos Coelho, not to mention their unions depended on getting rid of him as many privatization policies would go ahead and deeply hurt the PCP unions. BE was in the perfect position. It could say to the PS, "the ball is on you", and say to the CDU, "you have no choice".

What happened next was the real surprise. The vast majority thought that the PS would be in the hands of BE and CDU, but the prospect of PSD/CDS getting back into power at any moment, forced BE and CDU to swallow harsh pills. CDU has more hurt than BE, as CDU (PCP) is a more ideological and paradigmatic party, while BE sells better their image and started to steal some of CDU flags. The fate was steeled in the summer of 2016, when Passos Coelho and the PSD committed political suicide by announcing the "devil in the corner", meaning recession and deficits. This was the perfect gift for Costa and PS as the economy started to recover to pre-2015 election levels and then beyond that. By 2017, Costa was dominant to the right and the left, and any time BE and CDU threatened to topple Costa, he would just say "Do that. Then you will see what happens to you".

However, divisions on the right are giving Costa the opportunity to present himself as the only rational option. PSD and CDS don't know how to handle Costa in the current circumstances as he is very volatile and when he seems down, he surprises the PSD/CDS and they are humiliated. Just look at the teachers crisis in May. Costa and the PS know that the only way to win elections is in the center ground, and he knows a lot of leftwing voters will not vote for him, so he's going for the jugular of PSD and CDS. Costa wants a majority or a strong minority, with the help of PAN. Anything lower than that is defeat. Costa's interview today to Expresso newspaper was quite telling:
https://twitter.com/expresso/status/1165023485497892864

António Costa interview: "A weak PS and a strong BE means ungovernability"

In this interview, Costa basically threw the BE under the bus, labeling the party as a mass media party, while PCP, at least has some values and is a party you can work with. And of course, BE is furious with Costa:
https://twitter.com/mmatias_/status/1165229427812425729

In these 4 years, when he needed partners to be government, @antoniocostaPM never made caricatures of bad taste. Now it seems that anything serves to try to win absolute majorities.

Costa and the PS know that the next term will not be like this one. The worldwide economy is slowing down, and the Portuguese economy is growing bellow 2015 levels at this time. He knows that to take strong decisions, he cannot govern with the current arrangement. Not to mention, that a PS majority would be also good news for the right, particularly PSD, as it would rest any internal discussions on the role the PSD has to play regarding a PS led government.

[Mike88]

New Gender Identity Law in schools creates controversy:

The government approved, last week, a new gender identification law to be introduced in schools, but the new law is creating a lot of controversy, with the right leading it. The new law allows transgender students to, for example, choose which bathroom or bathhouse to go to, according to their uniqueness. They should also be able to be called by the name they most relate to, or choose which uniform to wear. The law also provides for school supervision and parental framing. The Secretary of education, João Costa, has said this law will protect a very small minority and that schools will be able to adapt.

But, the right is furious with this new law. The PSD has led the criticisms, saying the government was forced to implement this by the "radical left" and that this law could aggravate bullying and school violence. Rui Rio, PSD leader, criticized the government for this:
https://twitter.com/RuiRioPSD/status/1164539463755816961

In August, one month from the start of classes, the government makes an order of BE profile, sowing confusion in schools and parents. Something done in the most foolish way imaginable. They treat lightly a serious matter and show little respect for children.

A petition against the new law already has more than 30,000 signatures and growing.

However, the media is trying to explain the new law. The law seems to apply only to students between 16 and 18 years old and every action has to approved by parents.

[Mike88]

2019 general election campaign update:

Tomorrow, will be the last day to submitt candidacies for the October 6 general election. A least 21 parties/coalitions are expected to be on the ballot in at least one district, some smaller parties do not run in the more rural districts. Nonetheless, parties are already in pre-election campaign mode and some are already putting campaign posters in streets across the country:

PSD
https://twitter.com/ppdpsd/status/1160971868402257921

They say they govern well, but there are 780,000 Portuguese without a family doctor. #PortugalNeeds a NHS that meets the Constitution. #PSD #PortugalFirst

BE
https://twitter.com/EsquerdaNet/status/1156102532898467841

We have many challenges ahead:

#climate urgency
fighting #precurity
save the #Health

In October, it's up to you to decide. #Make it happen

CDS-PP
https://twitter.com/_CDSPP/status/1165183605171281920

Another 10 billion euros in taxes. Is the state taking care of those who care? #CDSPP

Livre
https://twitter.com/LIVREpt/status/1158310388141662209

Free (Livre) is equality.

IL
https://twitter.com/LiberalPT/status/1160284246822535169

Honk if you're fed up with socialism.

PS, CDU, PAN, CH and Alliance twitter feed has also a lot of campaign material:

PS: https://twitter.com/psocialista

CDU: https://twitter.com/CDUPCPPEV

PAN: https://twitter.com/Partido_PAN

CH: https://twitter.com/PartidoCHEGA

Alliance: https://twitter.com/Partido_Alianca

[Mike88]

Left Bloc (BE) unveils their 2019 election manifesto:

The Left Bloc has published their election manifesto for the October 6 elections. The document, with 156 pages, highlights the main issues for the BE: Climate change, more public investment and new taxes. The main policies are the following:

- Minimum wage increase to 650 euros in 2020 and a 5% increase each year after 2020;
- Increase public investment to 5% of GDP per year, around 10 billion euros;
- Debt restructuring, which eases the burden by 2 billion euros per year, with tax restructuring;
- Increase investment in Culture to 1% of the budget;
- Renacionalization of many companies (postal services for example);
- Creation of a new state tax rank for companies with profits between 20 million and 35 million at a 7% rate, to finance Social Security;
- Creation of new IRS ranks;
- Creation of an inheritance tax to taxpayers with values above 1 million euros;
- Creation of the "Google tax", to tax digital multinationals for their activity in Portugal;
- Elimination of many tax benefits, like political parties exemption in housing taxes;

- Creation of the Ministry of Climate Action;
- Ban, until 2029, of cars in the downtown areas of Lisbon and Porto;
- Strong investment in public transports, with the expansion of Lisbon and Porto subways and lightrails;
- Creation of an Energy basic law;
- Renovation of the railway network in Portugal, investing 10 billion euros until 2040;

- More investment in the NHS and Education;
- Creation of a multi-annual investment plan for the NHS;
- Ban of Public-Private Partnerships in the NHS;
- Construction of 100,000 new houses with rents of 150 euros per month;
- Creation of a Basic Justice Law to ease access and costs in the Justice system;
- Count of all the time and wage frozen for teachers;

- Legalization of marijuana for recreational use;
- Legalization of euthanasia;
- New legislation to protect animals;
- Creation of a Network of Official Collection Centers that meets the sterilization needs of stray animals;
- Portugal's departure from NATO and the EU Budget Treaty;

[Mike88]

Santana Lopes and his Alliance party protested and invaded the headquarters of the media regulator to demand more TV coverage:

https://twitter.com/SolOnline/status/1166435727615451136

"I felt in college again," Santana Lopes said after breaking into ERC headquarters.

"We are fighting for freedom of the press, for the right to inform and to be informed," the political leader told Expresso journalists, saying his protest could reach "international organizations".

He's becoming desperate. If you are polling between 0 and 1.5%, of course you we'll have less coverage.

[Mike88]

21 parties/coalitions will be on the ballot in the October 6 general elections:

It's the highest number of parties running in an election in Portugal, a total of 21. The number of parties running varies from district to district, as some will have 17 parties, others 18, 19, 20 and 21. The full list of parties, by alphabetical order, running is the following:

A - Alliance, center-right
BE - Left Bloc, leftwing
CDU - Democratic Unitary Coalition (PCP/PEV), leftwing
CDS-PP - CDS-People's Party, center-right
CH - Enough!, rightwing to far-right
IL - Liberal Initiative, center to center-right
JPP - Together for the People, center
L - Livre (Free), center-left to leftwing
MAS - Socialist Alternative Movement, far-left
MPT - Earth Party, center-right
NC - We, the Citizens, center to center-right
PAN - People-Animals-Nature, center-left
PCTP/MRPP - Portuguese Workers' Communist Party, far-left/Maoist
PDR - Democratic Republican Party, center
PNR - National Renovator Party, far-right
PPD/PSD - Social Democratic Party, center-right
PPM - People's Monarchist Party, center-right to rightwing
PS - Socialist Party, center-left
PTP - Portuguese Labour Party, center-left
PURP - United Party of Retirees and Pensioners, big tent/pensioners rights
RIR - React-Include-Recycle, big tent/anti-system

[bigic]

Why the PSD keeps "PPD" (abbreviation of their former name) in their official abbreviation?

[Mike88]

Why the PSD keeps "PPD" (abbreviation of their former name) in their official abbreviation?

It's a historical thing, plus an homage to their historic leader, Francisco Sá Carneiro. The party's real first name was actually PSD - Social Democratic Party, but there was one already, a tiny one that disappeared in very short time, and the name was barred. By 1976, the party officially added the PSD part to their name, but the PPD part is not very talked as the party is always called "the PSD". Very few people within the PSD use it, the one that used the most was actually Santana Lopes, but he's out of the party with some joking that his new party is more the "PPD/Alliance".

2019 election campaign update:

TV networks have started to interview political leaders. TVI, the 2nd most popular network in Portugal, is conducting a series of interviews where party leaders answer questions from a panel of guests and then of questions sent by voters via twitter. Assunção Cristas, CDS leader, was interviewed yesterday. This is part of her interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aipx63XnPSo

During the interview, twitter users were able to rate the performance of the party leader being interviewed. Cristas results were the following:

54% Good
46% Bad

António Costa, PS leader and PM, was interviewed this evening. His performance was also rated during the interview by twitter users, a total of 5,695 users voted. The results were the following:

58% Bad
42% Good

[Mike88]

Party budgets for the 2019 general elections:

Estimated expenditure during the campaign:

2,406,605 € PS
2,050,000 € PSD
1,200,000 € CDU
   983,724 € BE
   700,000 € CDS-PP
   250,000 € Alliance
   150,000 € CH
   138,885 € PAN
   100,000 € PDR
     50,000 € IL
     50,000 € NC
     50,000 € JPP
     33,000 € PPM
     25,000 € RIR
     18,000 € PCTP/MRPP
     11,000 € Livre
       4,000 € PTP
       3,000 € MAS
       1,500 € PNR
       1,500 € PURP
              0 € MPT

8,226,214 € Total

[Mike88]

Pitagórica poll on the truck drivers strike and crisis:

Q1: Who was on the right side during the strike?

33% Both Bosses and Workers
31% Workers
  9% Bosses
  1% Government
16% No one
10% Undecided

Q2: How do you rate the government's handling of the strike?

34% Reasonable
31% Positive
30% Negative
  5% Undecided

Q3: How do rate the attitude of the truck drivers unions?

47% Negative
34% Reasonable
11% Positive
  8% Undecided

Q4: How do rate the attitude of the truck drivers bosses?

46% Negative
37% Reasonable
  6% Positive
11% Undecided

Poll conducted between 12 and 24 August 2019. Polled 1,525 voters. MoE of 2.56%

[VPH]

Pitagórica poll on the truck drivers strike and crisis:

Q1: Who was on the right side during the strike?

33% Both Bosses and Workers
31% Workers
  9% Bosses
  1% Government
16% No one
10% Undecided

Q2: How do you rate the government's handling of the strike?

34% Reasonable
31% Positive
30% Negative
  5% Undecided

Q3: How do rate the attitude of the truck drivers unions?

47% Negative
34% Reasonable
11% Positive
  8% Undecided

Q4: How do rate the attitude of the truck drivers bosses?

46% Negative
37% Reasonable
  6% Positive
11% Undecided

Poll conducted between 12 and 24 August 2019. Polled 1,525 voters. MoE of 2.56%

Seems like it won't negatively impact the government that much. I would have expected it to.

[Mike88]

Seems like it won't negatively impact the government that much. I would have expected it to.

Not really. The narrative during the strike, played heavily by the media, was that any though stance by the government would be received very well by the electorate. Yes, the narrative changed by the end of the strike, with the media comparing Costa with Margaret Thatcher, but, still the sense was that the electorate would be very supportive of the government's actions and that this would help the PS come closer to their goal of an absolute majority. The poll paint a picture, in my opinion, that the strike didn't had much impact in voters minds. Maybe it was because it was August and millions of Portuguese were in vacation and they didn't care about the news or downplayed the strike. There were 2 or 3 days of very intense lines in gas stations, but after that, calm, everything calm.

Pitagórica will release the numbers of the vote share by parties tomorrow, but i don't expect a lot of changes from the 43-22 from the last poll. However, they have released some date from the poll:

Pitagórica poll from August:

Q1: Do you approve or disapprove the government's performance?

53% Approve (+2)
40% Disapprove (+2)
  7% Undecided (-5)

Q2: Who do you see as the "real" leader of the opposition?

30% Rui Rio (-8)
16% Catarina Martins (+3)
13% Assunção Cristas (-5)
  2% Jerónimo de Sousa (nc)
39% No one (+8)

Q3: How do rate the opposition's performance?

61% Negative (+5)
  9% Positive (+1)
30% Reasonable (-6)

Poll conducted between 12 and 24 August 2019. Polled 1,525 voters. MoE of 2.56%

[Mike88]

Pitagórica poll for JN/TSF radio:

Vote share %:

43.6% PS (+0.4)
20.4% PSD (-1.2)
10.0% BE (+0.7)
  6.6% CDU (-0.2)
  4.9% CDS (-1.1)
  3.2% PAN (-0.4)
  1.5% Alliance (+0.3)
  1.3% IL (new)
  8.5% Others/Invalid (+0.1)

Poll conducted between 12 and 24 August 2019. Polled 1,525 voters. MoE of 2.56%

[Mike88]

He's back. José Sócrates trashes António Costa in an op-ed in Expresso newspaper:

https://twitter.com/SICNoticias/status/1167727748732850177

Socrates considers "unbearable" Costa' attacks on absolute majorities.

Former PS PM José Sócrates is back. He has written an op-ed on Expresso newspaper strongly criticizing António Costa. Sócrates is upset by Costa's quote that the "Portuguese people don't have good memories of absolute majorities", saying that he had never dream that the PS would diabolize their own governments, adding that Costa was part of his government until 2007:

Yes, they have no good memory of the absolute majority of the PS, nor will they - at least as long as the PS leadership remains committed to downplaying it, thus adding to the discourse of all the other parties that have obvious political interest in doing so.

(...)

To tell the truth, I never thought things would reach this point. It never occurred to me to find myself in the uncomfortable situation of having to remind someone that the government that you now curse was, after all, a government in which you participated.

[Mike88]

CDS and PAN release their election manifestos.

CDS 2019 election manifesto:

- Tax cuts with a reduction of the average IRS rate to 15% by 2023;
- Scrapping overtime work taxation;
- Tax reduction for house lease to 23% and stamp tax exemption;
- Corporate tax reduction to 17% in 2020;
- Elimination of fuel surcharge;
- Ban of political parties exemption to pay housing taxes;

- Extend parental leave to one year, with more equal parental leave sharing and extention to grandparents;
- Creation of a global net of private and public kindergardens to erase waiting lists;
- Flexibility of hours to reconcile family life with work life;
- Allow workers with children bellow 6 years old to work from home;
- Creation of tax and personal benefits for informal caregivers;

- Creation of a school system as a "social elevator";
- Allow poorer families to choose a school in a more favorable context rather than according to the address;

- Expansion of ADSE, public workers health insurance, to all the population;
- Allow doctor consults in private hospitals if public hospitals are in overflow;
- Creation of the "family nurse";
- Elimination of regional health administrations;
- Expansion and construction of more local health facilities;

- More investment in the judicial system;
- More investment to fight corruption and new approach to big and mega cases;
- Creation of the true status of the repentant;
- Creation of whistleblower protection regime in the context of economic and financial crimes;
- Reestablish state benefits for war veterans;

- Maintenance of the 35 work hour by week for public workers;
- Review of the current strike law, penalizing unions who don't respect minimum services;

PAN 2019 election manifesto:

- Creation of a new IRS rank;
- Reduction of VAT for alternative energies;
- Taxation of all bags regardless of their material;
- Tax benefits for companies which are environment friendly;
- End of the golden visas;
- Uniform working hours and holiday days for public and private workers;
- Increase of the minimum wage by 50 euros per year, reaching 800 euros by 2023;
- Free transport passes for workers who gain the minimum wage;
- Allow women to stop working from the 32nd week of gestation, without any remuneration impairment;
- Legalization of Euthanasia;

- More investment in the NHS;
- Hiring of more nurses and doctors;
- Strengthening the National Palliative Care Network;
- Creation of a "NHS for animals";

- Allow teachers to gave all their frozen career and wage time counted;
- Free preschool for children from the age of 3;
- More interaction of students with nature;
- Reduction of homework given to students;
- Increased nutritional quality of school meals;
- Introduction of sign language in schools;
- Free public transport for students under 18 and a 5 euro pass for students until 25 years old;

- 10 day license for victims of domestic abuse;
- Creation of two new secretaries of state: for well being and animal protection and one for elder people;
- Creation of the national animal provider;
- Abolishion of bullfights and the use of animals in other events;

- Increase investment in Culture by 235 million euros, financed by VAT in tourism;
- Force the government to declare National Climate Emergency;
- Prevent oil exploration off the Portuguese coast and shut down coal plants by 2023;
- Encourage cycling and the creation of the 2035 Rail Plan to link all district capitals;
- Suspension of the construction of the new Lisbon airport in Montijo;

[Mike88]

António Costa interview - "It would be incomprehensible to fall into a situation of impasse like the Spanish one":

https://twitter.com/observadorpt/status/1168084022045663235

In an interview with Lusa, António Costa dramatizes the election results, criticizes the media and Pardal Henriques and leaves the promise: "I will not be a presidential candidate, nor in the next elections."

Excerpts of the interview:

It would be a little incomprehensible for us to throw out a solution that has worked well for us to fall into a stalemate like the Spanish one, who, of course, I believe cannot be the future each of us wants.

(...)

It was the PS that secured the stability between income recovery and deficit reduction, between strong economic growth and the recovery of international credibility, between tax relief and debt reduction, a left majority in the Assembly of the Republic, but a good relationship with the President of the Republic elected by a distinct majority.

(...)

Manifestly we had a case where there was an instrumentalization of a set of workers for the electoral promotion of a candidate. (...) This has puzzled me, but I think surely the self-regulation of the media will have time to reflect on how it dealt with this issue.

[Mike88]

With the Pitagórica poll added,

Updated POLITICO poll of polls: (compared with the last average)

Vote share %:

41.4% PS (+3.7), 118 seats (+8)
20.9% PSD (-1.1), 63 (-5)
10.3% BE (-1.3), 24 (-1)
  6.5% CDU (+0.4), 13 (+1)
  4.8% CDS (+0.9), 7 (+2)
  3.4% PAN (-2.6), 4 (-7)
  1.5% Alliance (+0.2), 1 (+1)
11.2% Others/Invalid (-0.3), 0 (nc)

* The seat change is compared also with the last average. Seat projection from here.

A somewhat comfortable absolute majority for Costa seems to be the trend right now. We'll see what the next polling, to come out in the next few days, says.