New Year's wish: that the bloody socialist Government starts to rule.

Unelected PM of Portugal, António Costa

Costa knows perfectly well, that the "majority" supporting his government, 

has the stability of a house of cards 

and the credibility of a Vilar de Perdizes Congress 

(where witches and alternative medicine gurus come together).

Over the past few months, perhaps even years, 

the leftists have poisoned the political space with its poor magical thinking. 

With António Costa in power, 

and the radical left-wingers (communists -marxisits-leninists), 

holding the socialists within their lap, 

austerity would magically disappear in Portugal in the twinkling of an eye. 

The economy would start to grow with the tearing strength of a Mustang. 

And the country would give a social civilizational leap, 

for the only reason, that the left-wingers are in power  in São Bento.

The flight into this blah-blah-blah of magical wishful thinking 

which, moreover, voters in Portugal, in Spain, or the United Kingdom, 

did not buy, 

is symptomatic of the rapid decline of the European socialist parties. 

It reflects an inability to programmatic reform 

and to present alternatives governments 

which would reconcile the stability of public accounts, 

the defense of the welfare state and promote competitiveness 
in the space of globalization. 

Still, in an arrangement that broke with all democratic traditions 

and attempted to subvert the rule of political legitimacy, 

an agreement of which history, is yet to be written, 

the leftwingers, understood that they had a natural right to rule. 

To open "a new era", to "turn the page" and "defeat the neo-liberal right" 

(which never existed), 

to resort to expressions of the official liturgy of Costa, 

Catarina Martins and Jeromimo Sousa. 

To inaugurate this "new era", 

the leader of socialist/communist coalition, 

António Costa, assured the country, that to have a "leftist "majority", 

was by cosmic alignment, 

an equivalent of "stablility, long-lasting rule and crediblity". 

In other words, a self-sufficient "majority". 

Within less than a month, 

reality has proved that a leftist "majority" does not exist. 

As a Portuguese citizen, 

I feel cheated by such a shaky start of the governing cycle. 

Instead of new policies with a look towards the future, 

what appeared, were old policies, 

taking the country back to the infamous 2011.

Instead of a reforming audacity, 

all that is there, is a reactionary spirit. 

The page is being turned, in fact, but unfortunately, 
backwards and not forwards. 

When determination was expected in government policy action, 

freshness of proposals and vigor in its execution, 

what the nation have witnessed, 

is a worrying inability of decision. 

António Costa had promised much better than this, 

but his government is more concerned with its own existence, 

than that of the country.

There is always an excuse not to do anything, 

or to do it differently from what was promised to the Portuguese. 

I suspect that in the midst of so much negotiation with the radical left, 

the electoral programme of the socialists, has been reduced to two strategic directions: 

on the one hand, to take the horse out of the rain (meaning - forget it); 

on the other, passing the blame - blame the previous government, blame Europe, 

or blame the radical coalition partners, 

whatever is more convinient.

To be able to govern, 

is much more than driving while looking in the rearview mirror, 

it is much more than to breaking everything down. 

It won't be long, before António Costa will tell us, 

what we have always known and what Costa has always hidden, 

that as true as, one plus one equals two, 

his "contraption" of a government, simply does not work. 

Something that was born crooked, will never straighten up. 

Costa knows very well, that the pseudo-"majority" 

supporting his government, has the stability of a house of cards 

and the credibility of a Vilar de Perdizes Congress

 of witches, witchdoctors and magicians.

Costa awaits for the best time to get rid of his bed-fellows 

and create another political crisis, which would then lead to elections. 

A time of tribulation and a final admission of the dysfunctionality 

of the left-wing contraption will surely come. 

What happened at the first amendment budget, presented in parliament, 

with all the left-wing radicals, voting against Costa´s proposals, 

just imagine what will happen with the presentation 

of the next State Budget for 2017. 

Costa will be there promising everything to everyone. 

More money for salaries, more money for pensions, more cuts off taxes, 

reintroducing a real boom everywhere. 

But Alas! In reality, the accounts show, that at the end of the day, 

Costa´s "turning of the page" is only worth  €1.8 (one euro and eighty cents)

 per month for the lower pensions. 

Long live the end of austerity, exclaim some. 

It´s "poucochinho" (too little), others may say. 

Yes, but it is the sum of all the "poucochinhos" for every taste, 

which increases the risk that Portugal will again be made 

a protectorate of international institutions. 

May God deliver us from such a fate.

On my list of requests for 2016, 

I have a political wish: 

I wish that Costa will govern, without apology or subterfuge. 

For 2016 (and from then on) it can be more than a year "poucochinho" for all of us. 

And for 2017 onwards, 

but for God´s sake, 

do not let us return to the hardships and the suffering 

that we were leaving behind before these elections.

Based on an opinion article written by Carlos Carreiras in the "i" newspaper.