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Portugal's Democracy Cracks Under Weight Of Austerity

ImageContent(562c0b6ce4b0ec0a3894b4d2,562c069f1900002d00b94cef,Image,HectorAssetUrl(562c069f1900002d00b94cef.jpeg,Some(crop_8_465_3992_2202),Some(jpeg)),PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/Getty Images,Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva appointed a center-right minority government on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015, even though it lacks a parliamentary majority.)

Elections in Portugal this week offered the latest sign that when an individual European nation’s voters challenge eurozone austerity policies, the monetary union -- and the international creditors it represents -- takes precedence.

Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, fueled an ongoing debate about the future of European democracy on Thursday when he reappointed an outgoing center-right prime minister despite election results that gave three left-leaning political parties the majority of seats in parliament. 

Cavaco Silva named center-right leader Pedro Passos Coelho prime minister over the objections of Socialist leader Antonio Costa. Passos Coelho’s Forward Portugal Alliance (PAF) received the largest share of the vote of any single party in the Oct. 4 elections, the president said in a televised speech Thursday, and the party with the best showing has always formed the government since Portugal returned to democracy 40 years ago.

Cavaco Silva made clear, however, that his decision was influenced more by the desire to avoid challenging eurozone fiscal policy than by mere consideration for the country’s political traditions. 

"In 40 years of democracy, the Portuguese governments never depended on anti-European political factions," he said.

Costa, the Socialist leader, has asked to form a cabinet with the support of a parliamentary majority that includes the radical Left Bloc and Communist Party, since together, the three parties received over 50 percent of the country’s votes and have the power to control Portugal’s parliament. The Left Bloc and Communist Party are considered “euro-skeptics,” but the Socialist party, which would control the cabinet, is decidedly committed to remaining in the eurozone.

To be sure, as the president noted, Passos Coelho’s PAF won 38.6 percent of the vote in the country’s Oct. 4 elections -- the largest share of any single political faction. 

In Portugal’s political system, however, a minority cabinet is virtually guaranteed to fail without the support of a parliamentary majority.

"It is incomprehensible to name a prime minister who the president knows in advance will not be able to hold majority support in parliament," Costa told Agence France-Presse Friday.

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Cavaco Silva said he fears that Costa’s premiership would put Portugal on a path to confrontation with eurozone leaders and international creditors. Costa has proposed to end the country’s "obsession with austerity" by, among other things, restoring spending on education and health care.

Observing Portugal's commitments to the eurozone "is decisive, is totally crucial for the financing of our economy and, consequently, for economic growth and job creation,” Cavaco Silva said. 

He fretted that a left-leaning ruling government would jeopardize Portugal’s standing with its international creditors.

“After having completed a demanding program of financial aid, which implied heavy sacrifices for the Portuguese, it is my duty, within the scope of my constitutional remit, to do everything possible to avoid that wrong signals are transmitted to the financial institutions, investors and markets, placing in question the country’s external trust and credibility,” he said.

Portugal exited a 78 billion euro ($116 billion) international bailout program in May 2014, which required unpopular wage and pension cuts. But the country must continue to reduce spending and increase taxes if it is to meet the eurozone's requirement that it reduce its debt to 60 percent of GDP within the next 20 years.

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German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has led the continent’s push for austerity in response to the Great Recession and subsequent eurozone debt crisis, expressed her support for a center-right government. “Given the election results in Portugal, we hope Pedro [Passos Coelho] will be successful in forming a government,” she said on Thursday, in a speech to the center-right European People’s Party in Madrid.

But Passos Coelho’s government may not last long. Costa has said he would back an effort to oust the PAF from power if he can secure support from the other left-leaning parties. Passos Coelho must submit a four-year program within 10 days of taking office, and the Left Bloc and Communist Party have announced plans to reject any program that does not significantly undo austerity policies. If a majority of parliament rejects a prime minister’s four-year program, the ruling government collapses.

In that scenario, it would be up to President Cavaco Silva to tap another leader to form a ruling government. Given his harsh rhetoric, he might still deny Costa the opportunity do so, prompting a political crisis.

Portugal’s political system effectively precludes new elections from taking place until June at the earliest, raising the prospect that the president could be forced to appoint an unelected caretaker cabinet in the interim.

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Critics say the dilemma facing Portugal shows how the eurozone’s economic mandates undermine its commitment to democracy.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a columnist for The Telegraph, compared the situation in Portugal to the one in Greece, where the radical left Syriza party was elected in January to undo austerity policies, but ultimately was forced to agree to even harsher spending cuts and tax increases than were in place before.

“Greece’s Syriza movement, Europe’s first radical-Left government in Europe since the Second World War, was crushed into submission for daring to confront eurozone ideology,” Evans-Pritchard wrote Friday. “Now the Portuguese Left is running into a variant of the same meat-grinder.”

Antonio Costa Pinto, a political science professor at the University of Lisbon, voted for Passos Coelho’s center-right coalition earlier this month, but told The Huffington Post on Saturday that he opposes President Cavaco Silva’s attempt to exclude the radical left political parties.

“The president cannot exclude from Portuguese democracy two parties -- the Left Bloc and the Communists -- that represent 1 million voters and 20 percent of the Portuguese electorate,” Pinto said.

To do so, he added, would mean that “nowadays, especially in the periphery of Europe, parties that do not support the strict policy orientations within the eurozone do not count.”

Related on HuffPost:

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Big news for 'Sherlock' fans

Two mysteries surrounding BBC One's "Sherlock" television special were solved on Saturday: title and air date.

Stage Door: Death of a Salesman, Hell's Belles

The power of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is undeniable. The story of Willie Loman and his lost sons is a stirring commentary on the dark, underbelly of the American Dream.

In the New Yiddish Rep's version -- with English supertitles -- a remarkable cast beautifully captures its raw, realistic pathos. Avi Hoffman delivers a tour-de-force portrait of Willie Loman -- and attention must be paid.

Now at the off-Broadway Castillo Theater, this stellar production underscores what Arthur Miller admitted 50 years after its mid-century debut: The Lomans are a struggling, working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn.

Even if, in his words, they are "light years" from their roots. (An earlier version of Miller's play centered on a salesman named Schoenzeit, not Loman.)

Of course, all Americans can identify with Willie; but hearing this 1951 translation of Toyt fun a Seyslman brings home the power of a generation desperate to achieve success -- and the pressures it put on its children to surpass expectation. "A salesman is got to dream, boy, it comes with the territory."

Thematically meaty, the story of 60-year-old Willie Loman is an archetype of American overreach. He dreams big, but his salary, due to his reduced circumstances, can't cover his bills. Working for the same company for nearly 40 years, Willie is a traveling salesman who crows about his popularity, but whose final destination is oblivion.

Unlike his brother Ben, who "went into the jungle at 17 and came out at 21 with gold," neither Willie nor his oddly nicknamed sons, Happy (Lev Herskovitz) and Biff (Daniel Kahn), are risk takers. Or share the same vision. The boys dream small and squander opportunity. Security, the promise of American business, is trumpeted. But business, in the guise of his boss (Adam Shapiro), has its own ruthless agenda.

"Salesman" is all about dreams, identity and family turmoil. Muscular, likable men rival intellectual achievers like neighbor Bernard (Ben Rosenblatt) in the battle for social and economic supremacy.

Wife Linda (a standout Suzanne Toren) often a meek, shadowy figure in Salesman productions, is resolute throughout -- fierce in her devotion to her husband. She's willing to turn her sons out at the end, even knowing Willie's days are numbered.

Little wonder Salesman hit home. It addresses primal worries: losing a job, living in crowded environs, the fear that life has passed you by. Whether you see yourself or a family member or the sorrow of America's promise, Death of a Salesman skewers the myth of America's promise.

The production is part of the 100th anniversary of Miller's birth. Two of his most produced plays will appear on Broadway this season: A View From the Bridge and The Crucible, his McCarthy-era allegory. The 1951 Yiddish Salesman adaptation by Joseph Buloff is a testimony to the enduring strength of Miller's masterpiece.

Performed on a bare set, save for a table and chairs, the New Yiddish Rep's revival is riveting. Brilliantly calibrated by director Moshe Yassur, who gets exceptional performances from his cast, this version is not to be missed.

On a lighter note, the musical Hell's Belles, now at the Elektra Theater at the Times Square Arts Center, revels in camp. It's an entertaining romp with a simple premise: The audience is spending a moment in hell, entertained by a bevy of famous women.
Hell isn't good or bad, it's all about ratings.

And some of the most intriguing women, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Janis Joplin, Judy Garland to Gertrude Stein, make their debuts. Marilyn Monroe is "dead and sexy, everything a legend out to be," while Salome is introduced as "the trash is taking itself out."

A medley of musical genres is neatly performed and parodied -- cabaret, country, rock 'n' roll -- all resulting in a devilishly good time. A talented trio (Lindsey Brett Carothers, Laura Daniel and Rachel Erin O'Malley) portray various roles, all introduced with appropriate Las Vegas-style patter by Lester (Matt Wolpe), Satan's rep.

There are the usual corny jokes, augmented by a few zingers - "Only Andrew Lloyd Webber could turn the wife of a tyrant into a star" -- and some sassy social commentary on the capricious nature of celebrity and the vagaries of history. Whether sending up Eva Peron or the bitchiness of Hollywood divas, Hells Belles is a zippy musical revue.

The hardworking crew, directed by John Znidarsic, may be in hell, but the entertaining romp is earthbound fun.

Photos: Death of a Salesman/Ronald L. Glassman; Hell's Belles/Russ Rowland

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Bush says pay cuts don't mean campaign is struggling

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Data Privacy Pact Must Be Forged Between Europe And U.S., Regulators Warn

Companies could face action from European privacy regulators if the European Commission and United States do not come up with a new system enabling them to shuffle data across the Atlantic in three months, the regulators said on Friday.

The highest EU court last week struck down a system known as Safe Harbour used by over 4,000 firms to transfer personal data to the United States, leaving companies without alternatives scrambling to put new legal measures in place to ensure everyday business could continue.

Under EU data protection law, companies cannot transfer EU citizens' personal data to countries outside the EU deemed to have insufficient privacy safeguards, of which the United States is one.

EU data protection authorities meeting in Brussels to assess the implications of the ruling, said in a statement that they would assess the impact of the judgment on other data transfer systems, such as binding corporate rules and model clauses between companies.

"If by the end of January 2016, no appropriate solution is found with the U.S. authorities and depending on the assessment of the transfer tools by the Working Party, EU data protection authorities are committed to take all necessary and appropriate actions, which may include coordinated enforcement actions," the watchdogs said in a statement.

The Commission and the United States have been in talks for two years to reform Safe Harbour after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the existence of mass U.S. government surveillance programs.

Talks have been hampered by the difficulty of extracting sufficient guarantees that U.S. authorities' access to personal data would be limited and proportionate.

The regulators said in their statement the EU and the United States should negotiate an "intergovernmental agreement" providing stronger privacy guarantees to EU citizens, including oversight on government access to data and legal redress mechanisms.

Multinationals can set up internal privacy rules which have to be approved by regulators to transfer data to the United States, known as binding corporate rules. However, only about 70 companies currently use this system.

Lawyers have said alternative data transfer systems could also be at risk to legal challenge since they do not provide stronger protection against U.S. government snooping than Safe Harbour did.

"The good news is that the European data protection authorities have agreed on a kind of grace period until the end of January," said Monika Kuschewsky, a lawyer at Covington & Burling.

 

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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Michigan Hands Rivalry Game To MSU With Last-Second Fumble

It's another loss for University of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, and this one's heartbreaking.

In the final seconds of the fourth quarter Saturday, Michigan punter Blake O'Neill fumbled the football on a blown snap, which ended up in the hands of Michigan State University's Jalen Watts-Jackson for a 38-yard touchdown.

It put Michigan State on top, 27-23, as the clock struck zero, handing another sad loss to Harbaugh's new team. And at home! The game-changing play was the first time Michigan State took the lead the entire game.

It wasn't just a shock for fans, but for Harbaugh, who returned to save his alma mater after a disappointing season in San Francisco. Today marks his Wolverines' second loss. Poor guy.

Oh, and BONUS FOOTAGE: A Michigan fan flipped off the camera at one point.

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