Nearly two thirds of the respondents to an opinion survey released ths week, some 61.7%, feel that the bailout in Portugal has "killed" rather than "cured" and most also believe that the policies developed with the Troika of lenders during the bailout years will continue for the foreseeable future.
The Eurosondagem survey about austerity policies implemented by the Troika were presented in Lisbon and showed that more than half of respondents believe that austerity has lowered the country's economic and social standing.
The feelings of those questioned were divided between accepting the inevitability of the austerity programme (42.5%) and of those that disagreed with its implementation (37.7%).
These opinions illustrate a degree of acceptance and resignation by the majority that the population must be punished for the folly of their leaders.
For those that believe that the policies will continue for some time yet, they have the words of the Finance Minister to show how right they are as Maria Luis Alberquerque already has stated that fiscal discipline will have to continue for "many years" with half of those interviewed doubting the existence of credible proposals at the end of the Troika's regime.
"Freedom of discussion and debate is an essential condition of democracy and the design of appropriate economic policies," said Eduardo Paz Ferreira in the preface of his survey, emphasising his hope that the results will help inform debate on the current situation of the country.
This is a wild hope as economic policy currently is decided by a ruling coalition with little if any room for debate. Pedro Passos Coelho and his complicit team have followed their own path of retribution, often blaming the Troika for policies which turn out to have nothing to do with the country’s lenders, but a lot to do with a government wishing to crack union powers, reduce wages and living standards, and clear out tens of thousands of small and medium sized businesses which must be fiddling the state if they are in buisness, most notably the restaurant sector.
The survey shows the level of the acceptance by the population of the current financial punishment of a nation which had it ‘took good for too long,’ according to the current crop of politicians.
