hard to tell without a subscription!
― fremme nette his simplicitte (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 March 2019 11:05 (five years ago) link
The arrival of a left coalition* into government happened to coincide with an economic upswing. I think it's fair to say that austerity politics were a fucking disaster for Portugal, destroying a lot of the social fabric, forcing a generation of uni grads into immigration, etc. but am less certain that what's come after can be called a success story - economic recovery is overwhelmingly due to a boom in tourism, which of course is bringing its own troubles: gentrification, downtown Lisbon and Oporto becoming almost all airb&bs, destruction of the environment.
Basically I fear that once the next crisis hits we'll be as badly off as the last time - or worse.
* not actually a coalition, more like a group of deals
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 11:10 (five years ago) link
are other industries in decline?
― ogmor, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 11:14 (five years ago) link
I'd say yes, but with the caveat that this has been happening for decades and is not down to the current government: you gotta remember being an isolated fascist dictatorship for much of the 20th century means we've always lagged behind a lot. Fishing and agriculture, still the main sectors when I was growing up, have been in dramatic decline for a long time; the textile industry got badly mutilated once competition moved in from South East Asia. It's a small country, and there's very little we produce that is competitive on an international scale - cork is the big one, which is why I get angery whenever I see wine bottles here in the UK that do without it.
This is also why, despite being fucked in many ways by the EU, you'll never get a strong euroskeptic movement in Portugal - we know that if it goes bust we're done for.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 11:37 (five years ago) link
bless yr country for Clean Feed Records and proper wine corks.
― calzino, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 11:50 (five years ago) link
I thought there was a cork shortage! to what extent do you think the perhaps overstated tech boom can be put down to govt management or is it totally coincidental?
― ogmor, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 11:55 (five years ago) link
What does we're done for mean? I'd give the EU about ten years the way it's going. Solutions and new ways will need to be looked at.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 12:06 (five years ago) link
We're done for means: having a common market and currency gives Portugal some slight advantages that helps it keep afloat on the international market (also: EU subsidies). I share your pessimism regarding the EU but unless there's some radical change to the system internationally - not ruling this out - Portugal without EU membership is in deep deep trouble.
ogmor, I think there *is* a shortage right now, the result of devastating forest fires two years ago. But in the long run it's still one of our biggest exports.
I have been told that there has been some good work done in the tech sector, but it's difficult for me to disassociate this from the start-up enterpeneurship culture that was running wild during the crisis years, and which mostly amounted to some rich kids getting to show off while "employing" ppl who were basically drifting from unpaid internship to unpaid internship. I still have friends in associated industries who regularly get paid late, or not at all. Plus, you know, all the usual issues with Silicon Valley tech-utopianism: the Web Summit has that stench all over it, pretty funny to remember they had Ja Rule over there shortly pre-Fyre Festival. This year they tried to get Marine Le Pen before the obvious predictable backlash put the kibosh on that.
At any rate I'd say support for this particular sector has been a constant between the right-wing govt we previously had and the current one: it's a good chance to blabber about Supporting Innovation and get pictures taken with celebrities. For the right-wingers it also had the advantage of seeming like a private sector solution to the crisis; a lot of "make your own app!" type advice given out to unemployed graduates.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 13:01 (five years ago) link
the EU-Mercosur trade deal not looking like such a great piece of business right now
― ogmor, Thursday, 22 August 2019 21:50 (four years ago) link
looks like manu and leo agree
― ogmor, Friday, 23 August 2019 13:12 (four years ago) link
& Bolsonaro responds by saying that EU concerns "evoke a colonialist mentality". Post-colonialism: every nation must be free to destroy its own natural resources.
― L'assie (Euler), Friday, 23 August 2019 15:31 (four years ago) link
Nothing says post-colonial like a bunch of white people burning indigenous communities out of their homes.
― ShariVari, Friday, 23 August 2019 15:40 (four years ago) link
layers and layers of colonizers
― L'assie (Euler), Friday, 23 August 2019 15:41 (four years ago) link
Has the EU-Mercorsur deal been cancelled or is it all just liberals shouting into the void again?
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 27 August 2019 08:51 (four years ago) link
good martin sandbu article in the FT here. Trump’s trade war, China slowdown and Brexit all pose a serious threat to the stability of the euro (and therefore europe?). It’s in Germany’s hands, but will depend on a politics ability to wean themselves off a historical policy of running a trade surplus, which does no one, least of all other eurozone countries, but including themselves, any favours. Paywalled tho so i put it in a pinboard note here. goes well with this accompaniment to adam tooze’s recent survey of the past four decades or so of German politics in the LRB. As a semi-hegemonic state within the eurozone, it’s pretty worrying that the political economy of Germany is so dysfunctional.
― Fizzles, Tuesday, 27 August 2019 09:55 (four years ago) link
spanish supreme court have decided franco's getting his grave downsized, you love to see it
― ogmor, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 10:29 (four years ago) link
just found out meades did a franco building doc last month that I missed, perfect!
― ogmor, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 10:34 (four years ago) link
it was good and scary and angry
― Fox Pithole Britain (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 10:35 (four years ago) link
Supreme Courts are on fire today.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 10:36 (four years ago) link
yeah everything I know about the valley of the fallen makes it seem like a nightmare
― ogmor, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 10:39 (four years ago) link
i'd prefer desecrated but downsized will do for now i s'pose
― Is it true the star Beetle Juice is going to explode in 2012 (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 10:46 (four years ago) link
Yeah, good day for Supreme Courts. I need to see that doc.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 11:33 (four years ago) link
https://www.politico.eu/article/jan-jambon-flemish-parties-toughen-migration-stance-in-coalition-agreement/
Flemish parties toughen migration stance in coalition agreementFlemish nationalist Jan Jambon announced the three-party deal Monday.
In the UK there are gammons, in Belgium there is Jambon itself.
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 30 September 2019 15:51 (four years ago) link
Great that we all learned the right lessons from the last crisis and that the EU is showing skeptics what for by pulling together in solidarity!
https://www.politico.eu/article/virtual-summit-real-acrimony-eu-leaders-clash-over-corona-bonds/?fbclid=IwAR1ewCarJ_y_3h2oiCiE1a0GIooHMbm4wINPxrhQSOXwIM4Si7h80dxPM_g
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:27 (four years ago) link
This is playing with fire. Can't see the EU surviving this.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:44 (four years ago) link
It'll survive it, but it's another idiotically selfish move that's bound to decrease its life expectancy in the long run.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Friday, 27 March 2020 14:45 (four years ago) link
Unlike you to be so positive Pom.
But yes it won't collapse overnight, but it gives the anti-EU forces more ammunition. All little steps along the way.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:49 (four years ago) link
seems that germany is going to be the death of it
― ogmor, Friday, 27 March 2020 14:54 (four years ago) link
Next Bundestag election will be held some time next year. A proper shift to the left is still possible, but I'm not exactly getting my hopes up.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Friday, 27 March 2020 15:00 (four years ago) link
Merkel seemed to be the only thing keeping the fascists at bay, so I'm worried.
I've said before here that I can't imagine Portugal ever going full euroskeptic, despite having been dealt a very rough hand during the last crisis, because the prospects of economic survival outside the EU are just so grim. But if this carries on that just might do it.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 27 March 2020 15:07 (four years ago) link
Same in Romania, but we're expendable anyway.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Friday, 27 March 2020 15:16 (four years ago) link
Hungarian parliament has made Orban dictator
Hungarian Parliament passes bill that gives PM Orbán unlimited power & proclaims:- State of emergency w/o time limit- Rule by decree- Parliament suspended- No elections- Spreading fake news + rumors: up to 5 yrs in prison- Leaving quarantine: up to 8 yrs in prison#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/5ScZCbF4yv— Balazs Csekö (@balazscseko) March 30, 2020
― ogmor, Monday, 30 March 2020 18:48 (four years ago) link
We briefly touched on this in the outbreak thread. The EU is afraid of seeming dictatorial and encroaching on the autonomy of its member states, at the risk of condoning a bona fide fascist dictatorship. This is simply not a risk worth taking, even if the usual suspects – starting with Poland – will undoubtedly side with Orbán in order to safeguard their own Blut und Boden bullshit.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Monday, 30 March 2020 18:57 (four years ago) link
The EU seem to be dictatorial when it comes to budgets and issuing bonds though..
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 30 March 2020 19:00 (four years ago) link
As long as Germany continues to call the shots…
― coco vide (pomenitul), Monday, 30 March 2020 19:07 (four years ago) link
European governments who think that a massive shock in the range of 12 to 20% of GDP can be absorbed with a few new loans from the European Stability Mechanism (whose total available capital is a paltry €410bn–just 3.4% of Eurozone GDP) are deluding themselves. https://t.co/i3RnVqAlxe— Nicholas Mulder (@njtmulder) March 30, 2020
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 10:01 (four years ago) link
"The Dutch" is trending on twitter, so you know what that means... I think their stance is appalling, it's entirely inappropriate posturing during the worst crisis imaginable, by both Rutte and Merkel.
This otm basically: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/mar/31/solidarity-members-eurozone-coronavirus-dutch-coronabond
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 10:25 (four years ago) link
the arguments against this are arguments against the EU
― ogmor, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 10:43 (four years ago) link
It has been argued (in the last crisis) that the half-dozen northern countries opposing fiscal expansion should split as a bloc and I can see that road being mapped out this year.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 10:57 (four years ago) link
what would france do?
― ogmor, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 10:57 (four years ago) link
An interesting one for Macron, a guy who has very little ideology.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 11:00 (four years ago) link
what would jupiter do?
― ogmor, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 11:20 (four years ago) link
The EU put out a statement condemning the abuse of emergency powers - that stopped short of explicitly naming Hungary. Hungary has just endorsed it.
It felt so empty without us ... So we joined the statement. #European #values are common to us all. https://t.co/0Wz8rXJduM— Judit Varga (@JuditVarga_EU) April 2, 2020
― ShariVari, Thursday, 2 April 2020 22:17 (four years ago) link
57-year-old Romanian man, one of 40,000 flown in from Eastern Europe to work on farms during the lockdown, dead from Corona he picked up in Germany.https://t.co/hFB2hwlUTS— Greggs Truther (@invisibleste) April 17, 2020
appalling
― calzino, Friday, 17 April 2020 15:59 (four years ago) link
Big surprise in Berlin state elections, where exit polls show the Greens of mayoral candidate Bettina Jarasch outperform predictions to come out top pic.twitter.com/CVSBOUYzQC— Philip Oltermann (@philipoltermann) September 26, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 26 September 2021 20:49 (two years ago) link
Initial results indicate that Berlin voted to expropriate and socialize around 11% of the apartments in the city from mega-landlord 😭 https://t.co/IK2f1nRUyE— nathan ma (@nthnashma) September 26, 2021
and Graz just elected a Communist mayor. https://t.co/0jaji2HSYx— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) September 26, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 26 September 2021 21:17 (two years ago) link
Germany's first openly trans MPs, both Greens 🇩🇪💚🏳️⚧️ https://t.co/IYMYyLzUFy— Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) September 26, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 26 September 2021 21:52 (two years ago) link
The SPD has scored a very modest success in this election, if one can even call it that. And it is NOT some kind of youthful Corbyn-surge but a lurch towards SPD of older ex-Merkel voters. Old voters, bulk of electorate, are decisive in explaining small gains. https://t.co/CNtAKpGmYk— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) September 26, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 26 September 2021 22:24 (two years ago) link
You are a refugee, desperate, on a stranded boat on the Mediterranean. Do you let yourself and your family drown or starve or die of thirst, or do you try to steer the boat - and face 146 years in prison? https://t.co/I6XXhCbEFc— James B (@piercepenniless) September 29, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 07:39 (two years ago) link