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Resolution adopted by the National Bureau of the Left Bloc at its meeting on 3 july 2022.

The Socialist Party, led by the Portuguese prime minister António Costa, got the Parliamentary absolute majority that he pursued for a long time, with 117 seats out of 230 and 41.7% of the votes.

Over the past days, Portugal has been in the news in the international press. And for one good reason: the bill forbidding bosses to contact workers during their rest time. The American "Vice" magazine stressed that "Portugal has made it illegal for your employer to send you messages after working hours". Yahoo Finance" ran the headline "A simple mistake that could get your boss in trouble". In the British newspapers, like The Guardian, the measure was also highlighted. By José Soeiro 

While the COP26 summit is taking place in Glasgow, marches were organized all over the world, including in Lisbon and Oporto, to demand concrete measures that the summit and world leaders arenot delivering.

Even before its official approval, ministers, leaders, diplomats and others, were already warning against setting expectations too high for the EU’s real ability to follow up on citizens’ demands. By Luís Fazenda and Marisa Matias.

Marisa Matias and José Gusmão, MEPs for Left Bloc, have questioned the European Commission after being reported that the main websites of the Portuguese National Health Service (SNS) and other public services are providing data from citizens for the commercial exploitation of Google and other advertising companies.

Catarina Martins, Left Bloc coordinator, stated that the Portuguese government must have “a strong position condemning Israel’s attacks” and, while holding the presidency of Council of the European Union, take the necessary measures so that immediate sanctions are applied, in order to stop what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

Bloco de Esquerda promotes a Social Counter-Summit on the 6th and 7th of May, in the city of Porto, joining those who refuse to face this reality with the fatalism of the complacent and who have contributed to networks of resistance and solidarity against the crisis.

Marisa Matias and José Gusmão, MEPs for Left Bloc, are critical of the European Commission’s "unambitious" policies on social rights and of the follow-my-leader stance of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council.

Marisa Matias, MEP for Left Bloc, stresses that “perhaps the States would be freer to act” if there were no multinationals in the province of Cabo Delgado which dedicate themselves “to the extraction of natural resources in an absolutely predatory way”.

“The left must assert that the response to the climate crisis, as well as the response to the pandemic crisis, requires European and international collaboration. What is clear is that the European treaties are the first obstacle to such cooperation”, writes Catarina Martins, Bloco de Esquerda’s Coordinator, in “Quistioni” the new magazine of the European Left.

After a year of having to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, we can safely acknowledge that social support in Portugal has been clearly insufficient.