Europe is heading towards a state of social malaise.
The thesis is by sociologist Boaventura Sousa Santos; he attributes the problems faced by the continent, such as unemployment, to "neoliberalism"; "this crisis was created to destroy work and the value of work," he said, at the closing of a colloquium on social mobility and inequalities in Lisbon.
Gilberto Costa
Agency Correspondent / EBC
Lisbon - The economic crisis is causing Europe to cease being the continent where social policies mitigate the effects of economic inequalities and allow for a good quality of life for the entire population. "They want to create a state of malaise in Europe," criticizes Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the best-known Portuguese sociologist in Brazil, referring to the former Welfare State created in Europe after the end of World War II (1945).
According to Boaventura, Europe is ceasing to be a first-world continent and is becoming "a miniature world, with first, second, and third-world countries." He refers to the impoverishment of some countries and the lack of protection for citizens, as is happening in Portugal, Spain, and Greece, but with repercussions throughout the continent.
According to the sociologist, the European Union's governance model has become hollow and the project is irreversibly undone. He attributes the continent's problems, such as unemployment, to "neoliberalism." "This crisis was created to destroy work and the value of work," he said, closing a colloquium on social mobility and inequalities in Lisbon.
According to data from the EurostatThere are 26,5 million unemployed people in the 27 countries – a number greater than the entire population of the Southern Region of Brazil (2010 Census). According to the sociologist, some of the layoffs are due to changes in hiring rules. "Employment contracts change, but PPP contracts don't," he said, referring to public-private partnerships contracted between governments and private companies for the operation of services such as concessions or infrastructure.
Beyond the shift in the economy and social sphere, Boaventura points to political transformations, such as the weakening of the decision-making power of parliaments and the "social concertation" forums, as the Portuguese call the councils and pacts created to reduce conflicts between employers, workers, and the government. In the sociologist's opinion, instead of these bodies, the will of external creditors prevails, as is happening in Portugal, according to him, because of the Troika (formed by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission).
Boaventura Sousa Santos says that the Troika's direct action leads to government immobility and questions the rationality of the social spending cuts being made. In the Assembly of the Republic, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said that there will be convergence of pensions and retirement benefits for former public servants and former private sector employees. The head of the Portuguese Executive stated that adjusting the economy and changing acquired rights is not an option. "The country has to adjust," he argued.
The opposition criticizes the measure, saying it is unconstitutional, and complains that the government treats austerity as inevitable. According to the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party, António José Seguro, in less than two years of Passos Coelho's term, 459 jobs have been cut – almost half of the 952,2 unemployed counted in March.