Um ano de Sócrates com PM

Amanhã assinala-se a efeméride. A Reuters antecipou-se:

«Portugal PM still faces long run one year on

By Ian Simpson
LISBON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - One of Jose Socrates's first acts
after becoming Portugal's prime minister last year was to start
a Lisbon road race, but then run less than half the distance.
Socrates, who marks the first anniversary of his election
victory on Monday, said he wasn't in shape to reach the finish.
And just as in that race, the Socialist leader's promising
start does not show he can go the distance in reforming
Portugal's stagnant economy, analysts say.
Socrates, elected on a promise to create 150,000 jobs, was
under pressure in the past week, as reports showed unemployment
in western Europe's poorest country rose to 8 percent late last
year, a near 20-year high.
His economic reform programme "is very wide ranging but
there don't really seem to be too many concrete measures at the
moment", said Trevor Cullinan, an analyst for Standard & Poor's,
a credit rating agency.

WASTE OF TIME
Joao Cesar das Neves, an economist at Lisbon's Catholic
University, said Socrates had yet to take on his biggest
challenge -- slashing public spending that feeds the highest
budget deficit in the euro region.
"Everything else is a waste of time," he said.
Socrates, 48, became Portugal's first Socialist prime
minister with an absolute majority when he was elected last year
on a vow to jump-start the economy.
Portugal's economic growth has badly lagged the European
Union average since 2000. The central bank forecasts only 0.8
percent this year.
Socrates, an admirer of British counterpart Tony Blair,
quickly imposed tax hikes, spending cuts and a tax fraud
crackdown to narrow the ballooning budget deficit. The 2005 gap
is targeted at 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), twice
the euro zone limit.
He faced down unions by raising the retirement age for the
700,000-strong public work force to 65 and froze the system of
automatic promotions, sparking numerous strikes and protests
that choked Lisbon boulevards.
However, Socrates has barely started cutting public
spending. This year's budget is almost half of GDP, down
slightly from last year.
With little room for more tax hikes or fraud-busting
measures, Socrates will have a tough job to reach this year's
deficit target of 4.6 percent of GDP, analysts said.

LOW-HANGING FRUIT
The deficit-cutting measures "were what any government would
have done, those are low-hanging fruit", said Francisco Van
Zeller, president of the Confederation of Portuguese Industry, a
business group.
"It will be the next few years that will show how we'll get
to 3 percent," the euro zone limit, said Van Zeller, who also
praised Socrates for his determination and resolve.
In one move to cut spending, the government said in the past
week it would use individual contracts for most public workers.
It also set out a privatisation programme that includes the
state airline and energy company Galp Energia.
"Socrates is radically in the centre in that he wants to
carry out his reforms but he doesn't want to go to the left or
right," said Carlos Magno, a political commentator for RTP state
television.
Socrates's go-ahead for conglomerate Sonae's
11-billion-euro takeover bid for Portugal Telecom (PT)
last week also shows his commitment to opening up the economy to
competition, he said.
The popularity of Socrates's Socialists has sagged since the
elections but has turned up a bit in recent months, according to
a Aximage poll in Correio da Manha newspaper last week.»