English

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.