Bloc that makes
N the first place, it should be explained that the tune paramentary y tem allows parties that have more than one deputy to set up a "parliamentary group". Thus, the possibilities for intervena difference tion are very different depending on whether you have one deputy - as the
PSR almost did in 1991 - or two. With a parliamentary group, the movement has
PORTUGUESE polftical analysts of left and right are in agreeaccess to the meetings where the parliament: the election of two members of the Bloco de Esquerda (Lelt mentary timetable is set and where draft legislation is discussed.
Bloc)' has significantly changed life in parliament. At the begin-
Often this timetable is set by consenning not many expected an effective intervention. They thought the sus, but each of the groups can demand a
Bloc would limit itself to an agitational role around some of the debate and a vote on its proposals its withthemes of the electoral campaign, like abortion, drugs and tas out depending on general agreement — reform. But the effectiveness of the contribution of Francisco every year, the Bloc is entitled to propose
Louçh and Luis Fazenda has proved this one piece of legislation at its own initiative. But the biggest difference is at the level of the time allowed for intervention:
the parliamentary groups have a minimum time (6 minutes) to discuss all the proposed legislation, while an isolated memforecast wrong
LUIS BRANCO ber of the assembly has little more than ten since 1995 — has threatened to remove its or housing. If we add to this concern with minutes per year to intervene in the full assembly.
The Left Bloc has been distinguished above all in managing to combine in its intervention subjects that deeply divide society (like the law on religious freedom, attacking the privileges of the Catholic church in the name of a secular state) or which have embarrassed parliament (like the question of human rights in Angola, that had never been discussed in the Assembly, given the alignment of the Portuguese parties with the belligerent factions in the civil war), with a clarity of speech and an opening to dialogue with the left that the Partido Comunista (PCP) does support for the Budget, which could lead to elections in 2001 if the socialists do not obtain the necessary support.
One of the subjects most insistently raised by the Bloc is tax reform. Before the debate on the Budget for 2001, the members of the assembly had presented a package of laws (see box) with proposals on banking secrecy, taxes on the very rich and others. The proposals included in this package correspond to the profile of the Bloc's intervention - it amounts to showing the people that this government is not disposed to introduce the elementary measures of a left government, some of which are in vigour in other countries of insecurity — which derives directly from drug dependency - and the repressive responsive response of the government to these concerns, we grasp the real dimension of the problem. There are in Portugal between 70-150,000 people who are dependent on drugs (given the lack of official statistics, these are the figures accepted by doctors), so there is not a single family which is not directly or indirectly affected by this problem. The percentage of the HIV positive population in Portugal has grown more than anywhere else in Europe. And the majority of these are drugs dependent, such as 70% of the prisoners in Portuguese jails, mostly convicted not have and which is currently essential. the EU. Although the PS accepted some of for small crimes associated with their
The elections gave the Socialist Party 115 members of parliament, half of the Assembly. In other words, to get its proposals through, it needs at least one more vote.
Contrast
However, and again in contrast to what many predicted, the Left Bloc has not been in the "pocket" of the socialists. For the vote on the state budget last year, the PS negotiated the support of the Popular Party (right wing) and on the central questions of economic policy and the transfer of sovereignty to the EU it counts on the support of the bigger opposition party (the PSD, centre-right). This year, the right - which has voted for all the budgets of the PS the proposals, the Bloc clearly showed that the PS does not want to touch the privi:, leges of the rich (more than two thirds of the companies in Portugal do not pay any. tax, fraudulently declaring zero or minus profits). By insisting on the need for anoverall tax reform, the Bloc strengthened the public feeling that this reform was necy essary and that the responsibility for the current situation of generalized fraud is with the parties of the centre and right. e
The demand for a new approach tof drugs and drug dependency was anothar one of the core subjects of the Bloc's interp vention, and its parliamentary group imposed this subject on the parliamentary agenda last June. Drug dependency continues to be the main concern of the Portuguese people, more than employment addiction.
### Alterations
In the Assembly of the Republic, the Bloc proposed alterations to the law on drugs, depenalizing consumption, establishing the passive trade in cannabis derivatives and the medical prescription of heroin to those dependent on drugs. We also pronounced ourselves in favour of the opening of centres for assisted injection and for the swapping of syringes in prisons. After the Bloc had forced this subject on the parliamentary agenda, the government was obliged to respond with a draft law that would decriminalize the consumption of drugs and replace imprisonment by monetary fines and other sanctions. In the
International Viewpoint #325 November 2000 15
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L.REVIEW of the regime governing banking secrecy Allows the fax administration access to bank accounts: a) a rapid judicial process, with guarantees of defence and appeal, at the initiative of the General Director of Taxes, if the contributor does not present the necessary clarifications; b) creation of specialized judges in each judicial district; c) maintenance of the professional secrecy to which employees of the tax services are obliged; d) direct access: when the treasury department has the burden of proof, when data is necessary for the prosecution of a case, when the contributor benefits from a special fiscal regime or when they have submitted false invoices.
2. Revocation of law relating to offshore zones in Portugal Removes tax exemptions envisaged for offshore zones.
3. Solidarity tax on great wealth Creation of a new tax on overall fortunes of more than 100 million escudos, which represents less than 1% of Portuguese families who hold more than 10 times the average national wealth. The tax is strongly progressive, starting with a rate of 0.6% for 100 million escudos and going up to 1.2% for more than 500 million escudos. The taxable wealth includes real estate properties, as well as transferable values (shares, stocks, and so on). Wealth is determined through self-evaluation, with control by samples, contributors who are below the minimum threshold of 100,000 escudos not being obliged to make a declaration. Exempted are the values of pensioners, family jewellery, antiques, indemnities, and main habitations to the extent that they are being bought in instalments for a maximum period of 20 years. A criterion is introduced of maximization for the total tax on income and on the big fortunes.
4. Lax on reaL estate wealth Annuls the tax on local collectivities and introduces the re-evaluation of all urban and rural buildings during the year 2001, defines the criteria for the re-evaluation of rates, creates exemptions for the first 7 years after purchase. Establishes a rate of reference of 0.6% for urban buildings and 0.3% for rural ones, which means a tax reduction.
Sulax on inheritances and donations Annuls the corrent tax, introduces VAT on transactions involving urban property, with a differentiated rate: exemption up to 15 million escudos, 5% up to 30 million and 12% from there. Transactions in rural buildings are subject to a charge of 5% of the value, contributing to the reduction of prices and the transparency of the housing market.
7. Combat property speculation Introduces a punitive tax on vacant housing in urban zones of continuous habitation with more than
30,000 inhabitants: 10% in the first year, 12,5% in the second and 15% in third and following years, based on the property value, thus compelling these building to be placed on the market. Definition of a program of credit granted for the reconstruction of degraded buildings, extending thus the lease market and reducing prices, which in Portuguese cities are among the highest in Europe.
8. Modification of the regime geserning tax benefits_ Annuls unjustified tax benefits,
2.A review ol banking secrecy for companies in debt to Social Secucity Allows the President of the fastitute of Financial
Management of Social Security to obtain from financial institutions the necessary information on companies who owe more than have three months of debts to the social security system. This brings out the fact that debts to the social security system have increased and that there are no efficient instruments for their recovery.
Obligation to provide the necessary banking information for contributors who wish to have access to public subsidies.
1. Bunctions of the Parliamentary Commissioner of Taxpayers
This officer will be elected by the Assembly of the Republic, their powers increased as well as their responsibilities for intervention, particularly in the case of court proceedings where the rights of taxpayers will be challenged.
12. Corruption and lack of transparency in tax administration
Proposes that the methods of banking control are first applied to civil servants involved in the administration of taxes.
Tax rate of 40% on all financial transactions in privileged financial zones. Stops tax evasion by financial enterprises, in particular through provisions and other instruments. Promotes through taxes the reduction of working hours and job-creation in small enterprises.
Increase deductions for dependent work and for household expenditure, modify the tax bands. Introduce rate of 12% for the lowest band and decrease all rates, except that of 42% (incomes of more than 2 million escudos). Introduce the family quotient, which lowers taxes substantially for the poorest large families. Annuls the source and special rates, which are a means of tax evasion.
EISCAL PACKAGE
6. Modification of the car tax
10. Rules defining access to public subsidies
13. ax. on tnancial transactions
15. Modification of VAT
Exemption from VAT of all purchase of school books recommended in the educational system, reduction of rate of VAT for small companies of proximity economy, provision of services in creches and retirement homes, and materials recycled through wood. * debate, the Bloc succeeded in improving significantly this proposal, in the direction of quasi-decriminalization. The debate that traversed society was influenced by the proposals of the Bloc, to which the right responded with the proposal of a referendum, without proposing any alternatives to the bankruptcy of the current policy. This was only a partial victory: the proposals for a radical break with prohibitionism were rejected, although the younger deputies of the PS and the PSD abstained in the vote on the Bloc's amendments.
In previous parliamentary sessions,
16 International Viewpoint #325 November 2000 hardly any legislation proposed by the parliamentary left was approved, unless it concerned issues peripheral to political debate. Once again, the Bloc confounded general expectations and has seen some important proposals approved in broad outline. The basic law on Social Security received the green light from the parliament, and was one of the proposals on the table in the negotiation of the final law that opposes de facto the ambitions of the insurance companies to speculate with pensions.
The moratorium prohibiting the production of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and defining new rules for the labelling of the products was another Bloc proposal approved by the Assembly. In the area of health, the Bloc managed to have approved the installation of public pharmacies in the hospitals and the regulation of alternative medicines, today used by hundreds of thousands of people and providing work both for qualified professionals and charlatans looking for easy money. To get this law approved, great public pressure had to be applied to the PS, which always lines up with the corporatist positions of
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the Order of Doctors.
The first law approved from the Bloc was to make a public crime of violence against women within the family. Before this alteration, the Criminal Code only allowed the opening of criminal proceedings if the complaint was presented by the victim, which rarely happened. Following the approval in plenary session came the specific discussion in commission of the Bloc's proposals on popular legislative initiative - which establish that a petition signed by four thousand people can submit a law for debate in parliament — and the law on the organization of higher education, defining the minimum conditions for the existence of a university or polytechnic.
### Proposals
Other proposals also won the approval of the majority. In the budgetary debate for 2000, the Bloc obtained the cancellation of the debt of Mozambique (then suffering from catastrophic flooding) by the Portuguese state, as well as the lowering of VAT and the inclusion of condoms in health expenditures. Also approved were proposals and motions from the Bloc on freedom of the press and human rights in Angola, a protest against the murders by the Porto police of members of the gypsy community and the drugs dependent, against the death sentences on Mumia Abu Jamal and PKK leader Oçalan, against the war in Chechnya, solidarity with the fight of unemployed teachers and others.
Although the Bloc has drawn up some laws with the intention of winning the vote, it has not limited itself to this. Therefore, some proposals of the Bloc have been rejected, in particular on the subject of religious freedom, even though it succeeded in putting to the vote the Concordat between Portugal and the Vatican and finally opened a legislative process regarding the privileges of the Catholic Church.
The combination of dialogue on important proposals for the country with a radical approach to the symbolic and political questions has marked the first parliamentary year of the Bloc. Thus the Bloc deputies met Brazilian president Fernando Enrique Cardoso wearing t-shirts from the MST landless movement and criticized the corrupt senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães, a key figure in the Brazilian dictatorship, when he was welcomed in parliament. In
September 2000 they walked out when the king of Spain was received in parliament. The speeches of the members of the assembly on occasions like the anniversary of the 1974 Revolution or the transition of Macau to Chinese sovereignty enjoyed great media coverage and revealed a marked difference between the parties of the system and the radical left wing profile of the Bloc.
At this moment, Portugal is in open political crisis and the scenario of elections in June is a reasonable one. Until then, we have presidential elections in January, where the Bloc presents the historian Fernando Rosas, who has previously been a candidate on the lists of the PSR. It is an election with an anticipated winner — Jorge Sampaio, the current president supported by the PS — but the political crisis has given it an unexpected importance. Now, each candidate is more "glued" to the party that supports them and the campaign is centred more on concrete alternatives for the country.
The electoral objective of Fernando Rosas is to consolidate the growth of the Left Bloc and to win for the Bloc the support of an increasing sector of the left that is losing its illusions in the government of António Guterres. For the first fortnight of January, parliament is not sitting, which exclusively focuses political attention on the presidential elections. In these elections, the right is divided, with two candidates who cannot hope for more than 30% between them.
The PCP is undergoing an internal crisis that will lead to developments at its congress in December, where the orthodox" line, sympathetic to the sectarian Stalinism that dominates the apparatus, prepares to crush the internal opposition (which extends from pro-PS elements to those who defend a dialogue on the left to find an alternative). The PCP's candidate is a Lisbon municipal councillor, not well known to the public, and it is not clear whether they will finally contest the election or support Sampaio.
The plan of action for the coming months is similar to that of last year: to give an echo to the parliamentary work through public debates, the "Open Parliament" where the members of the assembly traverse the country to hear opinions and proposals on the state budget and other subjects of political topicality. Both members were elected for the Lisbon area but have since taken on the national
Portugal * dimension of their mandate. Therefore, these initiatives where they report back to the citizens take place in a decentralized fashion. Also, the Bloc installed a free telephone line in the Assembly to collect criticisms, commentaries and suggestions from all over the country.
### Agreement
The agreement on parliamentary representation between the parties that had constituted the Left Bloc foresaw the rotation of mandates over the four years. Since the day of the election it was planned that Francisco Louçã (Chico) would be in the assembly for the first year of the mandate, being substituted at the beginning of September. However, with the crisis centred on the debate on the Budget and tax matters - dossiers they have covered since the beginning - the leadership of the Bloc decided not to make this rotation now. If everything goes as planned, after the budget debate Chico will be replaced by the sociologist Helena Neves, a former leader of the PCP, now on the political leadership of the Left Bloc. As yet the consequences of the substitution are not clear, since until now the image of the Bloc has been very centred on parliamentary action and the profile of the deputies. But the diversity of the spokespersons of the Bloc should express the political diversity of the movement.
The political themes raised by the Bloc in the next year also depend on the electoral timing. If it seems there will not be elections, the Bloc can advance with the campaign for the depenalization of abortion - in 1998, the referendum was not conclusive, given that less than 50% of the electors voted, and the result was a narrow victory for the "pro-life" forces. This campaign will lead inevitably to a new referendum, where the manipulation and demagogy of the right must receive a vigorous response from the left, in contrast to the shameful campaign of 1998.
However, if there are legislative elections in June, and with the certainty of municipal elections towards the end of the year, the conditions will not exist for a popular consultation with significant participation. * * Luis Branco is a leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR, Portuguese section of the Fourth International), one of the components of the Left Bloc along with the Popular Democratic Union (UDP, of Maoist origin), of Politica XXI (originating from a split in the PCP) and independents 1. For more on the Left Bloc see IV 320 (April 2000)
International Viewpoint #325 November 2000 17
Summary of legislation proposed by the Bloc to July 2000
VIOLENCE against women in the family a "public crime"
Eliminates the necessity of presentation of complaint by victim, thus removing aggressor's capacity to force victim to abandon the legal process.
Sets terms of scientific inquiry in agricultural biotechnology, forbids production / commercialization of genetically modified agricultural products.
Regulation of non-conventional medicines
Recognizes freedom of individual choice on therapeutical methods, allows establishment of criteria of qualification of services and professionals.
Creation of public pharmacies and measures for the development and rationalization of the National Health Service
Widens the responsibility of hospital pharmacies to all sick people in ambulatory treatment, those on the minimum wage and pensioners with incomes below the minimum wage. Institutes a National Formulary of Medicine.
Prohibition of the killing of bulls in bullfights
Forbids this practice. Application of the law without exception by 5 years time.
Imposes limits to the validity (1 year) and the renewal of short-term contracts. Also limits the situations in which such contracts can be signed
Measures of protection for de facto unions
Eliminates legal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and widens the area of rights recognized to couples in de facto unions. Modifies the legal regime governing adoption. Recognizes to couples in de facto unions the right to adoption.
Opens banking information to the financial administration. Revokes legislation on offshore zones in Portugal. Provide for the closure of the offshore
Free distribution in the health centres and sale in the pharmacies without medical prescription.
Separation of the markets of drugs and the struggle against drug dependency
Depenalizes the consumption of drugs and regulates controlled distribution, in the framework of the National Health Service, of opiates to the drug dependent. Authorizes the creation of establishments of passive trade in 'soft drugs'. Establishes the bases of a new integrated system of prevention
Institutes a universal regime of family payments supporting in a specific form single parent families and those on lower incomes. Establishes a solidarity contribution to the financing of the system - centred on the very wealthy and incomes derived from stock market capital. Planned convergence of the minimum pension with the minimum wage. Reduces age of retirement to 65, flexibility until the age of 70 (with increase of pension).
Special process of regularization of clandestine immigrants
Admission of all citizens who have entered to December 31, 1999. Sanctions against enterprises who refuse to give clandestines work certificates.
Rights of single parent or two parent families
Creates forms of support for these families, through measures of a tax character and facilitation of access to housing.
Establishes the reduction of normal periods of work to 35 hours per week. Immediate reduction of working hours to 38 hours a week. Reduction by one hour per year, without reduction of wages and rights, until 35 hours. Accelerated rhythms possible in certain sectors. All breaks and occasional interruptions to count as part of work time.
Changes the relationship between citizens and rulers. With 4,000 signatures, a law can be submitted for debate in Parliament (constitution of a party,
System of organization of higher education
Forbids functioning of public or private educational establishments not meeting minimum conditions. Defines special conditions for contracts of programme and social action support. Ends instituted exceptions, like the Catholic University. Sets up council of regulation of higher education, including government, individuals and trade unions. Maintains university and polytechnic sub-systems, developing postgraduate education in both.
Suspension of the process of co-incineration in Portugal
Promotes obligatory recycling and regeneration of oils and solvents within a maximum stated period of one year.
Measures of reduction of risk for the drugs dependent
Creation of centres where assisted injection is possible. Defines the rules of functioning of such centres and their supervision. Creates services of information and guidance for treatment of the drugs dependent.
Definition of an immigration policy safeguarding human rights
Strengthens right of appeal, with suspension of refusal of entry and expulsion. Reinforcement of the right of legal assistance. Office of support for foreign citizens; an end to collective expulsions; revocation of the labour law for foreigners, with inclusion of the immigrants in the general law;
facilitation of the conditions for gaining a work visa and authorization of residence, with system of automatic renewal. *
18 International Viewpoint #325 November 2000
* Portugal Genetically modified organisms Contracts for short-term work Review of banking secrecy zones on the national territory. Depenalization of abortion
Preventative and punitive measures against violence in sport
Bans attendance at sporting events for 5 to 10 years to those guilty of violent acts or incitation to racism and xenophobia.
Law on Religious Freedom and the secularization of the state
Revokes Concordat and tax privileges of Church. Ends religious education in public schools and the representation of religious confessions in official ceremonies.
Financing of the activity of political parties and electoral campaigns
Establishes criteria of transparency in the accounts of parties, forbidding their financing by companies.
Measures for sexual education in the schools
Establishes curricular alterations and training of teachers for the introduction of contents related to sexual education in diverse disciplines.
Emergency contraception and treatment of drug dependency.
Outline law on Social Security
Reduction of normal period of work
Citizens' initiation of legislation
5,000, or a presidential candidacy, 7,500)