Climate Change: Ending coal in Portugal

Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year:

The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 January), leaving the country with just one remaining coal power station in operation, which is scheduled for closure in November.

Portuguese energy utility EDP announced its decision to shut down the 1,296 MW Sines coal plant in July last year, bringing the closure forward by two years – from 2023 to 2021. EDP’s initial plans were to close Sines in 2030.

The decision is “part of EDP group’s decarbonisation strategy” and was taken in a context where energy production increasingly depends on renewable sources, the company said back in July.

[...]

This leaves Portugal with just one remaining coal power plant in operation, Pego, which is already scheduled for closure in November this year, campaigners said.

Once it closes, Portugal will become the fourth coal-free state in Europe - unless someone else beats them to it, of course. France, Slovakia, the UK, Ireland and Italy are all planning to end coal by 2025, and it seems that once that decision is made, action tends to go faster rather than slower. Meanwhile in New Zealand Huntly is still legally allowed to burn coal. Hopefully that will change once the Climate Change Commission delivers its initial budgets and reduction plans in a couple of weeks.

New Fisk

Negotiations continue between rebels and the Syrian Army, but the bombardment of Ghouta won't stop any time soon
There's a reason why anti-Muslim ideology hasn't found a home in Portugal

Voting down Portugals coup

Last month, Portugal went to the polls, giving a Parliamentary majority to a left-wing Socialist-Communist-Left Bloc coalition. But rather than allowing the winners of the election to form a government, Portugal's conservative president attempted a legal coup by re-appointing the loser, Pedro Passos Coelho, as Prime Minister.

Today, that loser's "government" was inevitably ousted in a confidence vote:

A surprise alliance of leftwing parties with a mission to “turn the page” on austerity has ousted Portugal’s centre-right government barely 11 days after it took power.

The moderate centre-left Socialist party forged an unprecedented alliance with the smaller Communist party and the radical Left Bloc, linked to Greece’s anti-austerity Syriza party, and used a parliamentary vote on policy to force the government to resign on Tuesday.

The Socialist leader, António Costa, 54, is now expected to become prime minister in the coming weeks with a broad, leftwing coalition government, which hopes to ease austerity while still adhering to European Union rules.

There's a few problems with this - the alliance isn't a "surprise", but one that had been offered to voters and won a majority at election time. And while we'd all expect the Socialist leader, or someone with the backing of that coalition, to become Prime Minister, Portugal's crazy constitution does not actually require it. Portugal's anti-democratic President, who has made it clear that he opposes any government which might roll back austerity on "stability" grounds, could simply re-appoint Coelho again as a caretaker pending elections next year - effectively, force the Portuguese people to vote until they get it right. So, we now get to wait and see whether Portugal's President will respect democracy - or effectively declare himself a dictator.

But whatever the outcome, Portugal clearly needs constitutional change to limit the power of the president and ensure that this anti-democratic outrage never happens again.

A pro-austerity coup in Portugal

Its 2017. After 9 long years of cuts, austerity and failing public services, the public have had enough, and given Labour and the Greens a majority in Parliament. But the Governor-General - a National stooge appointed earlier that year - refuses to respect the results of the election, and instead reappoints John Key as Prime Minister.

Its a far-fetched scenario for all sorts of reasons, and I don't for a minute believe it would happen in New Zealand. But the people of Portugal, where it has just happened, probably thought that too:

Portugal has entered dangerous political waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe’s monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding eurosceptic parties from taking office on the grounds of national interest.

Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.

He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets.

And so we have democracy suppressed in the name of the EU and "financial stability" for elites.

As for what happens next, Pedro Passos Coelho, the reappointed Prime Minister, must face a confidence vote - which he will lose. The President can then respect the outcome of democracy, or reappoint Coelho as a caretaker until elections can be held - effectively demanding that the Portuguese people keep voting until they get it right. Given his rhetoric against the left, I expect it'll be the latter, and a full-on legal coup.

As for how this happened, its simply poor constitutional design. Like our own, the Portuguese Constitution gives the President the power to appoint the Prime Minister, and relies on convention and pragmatism to ensure that the choice is both legitimate and can function. But clearly, that's no longer enough. And the fix is simple: rather than having Prime Ministers appointed by the head of state, you have them explicitly elected by Parliament - thus demonstrating confidence and ensuring that the outcome is both democratic and legitimate. And that's something we should do in the long term to protect ourselves from any rogue head of state.

The cost of austerity

In May last year, Portugal reached a deal for a bailout from the IMF and European Central Bank. The bailout of course came with conditions: cuts, austerity, and privatisation. Now the cost of those cuts is becoming apparent: dead people.

There is a chart on the wall beside a machine that accepts credit cards. It shows the charges for seeing a doctor in one of western Europe's poorest countries, where opposition politicians blame budget cuts for a thousand extra deaths in February, 20% more than usual.

"They hiked the fees in January," said the receptionist, pointing to the new charges for everything from jabs and ear washes to having stitches removed. "Now a visit to the emergency room costs €20 instead of €9. A consultant costs €7.50. People are angry."

The health service is just one victim of sweeping cuts and increased charges for public services across Portugal.

Its a similar story in Greece, where German-imposed austerity has seen a resurgance in HIV and malaria (because needle-exchange programmes and hospitals were cut), and is expected to lead to a significant rise in infant mortality. Which is what happens when you cut healthcare and price it out of the reach of ordinary people.

It will take years before we have the proper numbers on this from an excess death study. But there's little doubt that these cuts will lead to tens of thousands of deaths in each country. And every one of those deaths can be laid at the feet of the foreign bankers demanding their pound of flesh. What they are doing to Greece and Portugal constitutes mass-murder on a vast scale. And they need to be held to account for it.

Equality comes to Portugal

Earlier this year, Portugal's Parliament passed a law allowing same-sex marriage. Today, the day after the Pope visited to warn of the impending homopocalypse, President Anibal Cavaco Silva announced that he will ratify the law. This will make Portugal the sixth country in Europe (after Belgium, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden) to allow same-sex marriage.

So, when is New Zealand going to join the civilised world? We've had five years of civil unions, and the world hasn't ended. Its time we took the next step, gender-blinded the Marriage Act, and let people decide how they want their relationships recognised.

European elections

Germany and Portugal went to the polls today in Parliamentary elections. In Germany, the insipid Social Democrats leached support both right and left, with centrists defecting to the Christian Democrats (whose right fringe in turn shifted to the NeoLiberal Free Democrats), while lefties shifted to The Left and Greens. The result is that in the midst of the Worst Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression^TM, Germany has elected exactly the wrong solution: a NeoLiberal tax-cutting, small government coalition. I guess they'll get what they voted for, and hopefully it'll be a warning to them not to be so stupid in future.

In Portugal its a different story. The ruling (NeoLiberal) Socialist party has lost its absolute majority, but the votes seem to have flowed mainly to the Left Bloc. Unfortunately Portuguese coalition politics is complicated, making it unlikely the Socialists will coalesce with their natural allies on the left, instead preferring to crawl into bed with the right-wing Democratic and Social Centre / People´s Party.

European Tribune has discussions here and here

New Fisk

Back to Portugal, where once there was revolution in the air

Choice wins in Portugal

Portugal went to the polls over the weekend in a referendum over whether to legalise abortion (currently illegal except in cases of rape, deformity, or the health of the mother). But while a clear majority of voters backed legalisation, turnout fell below the 50% required to make it legally binding. Despite this, the Portugese Prime Minister has announced that his government will legalise anyway - meaning that Portugese women will no longer have to cross the border into Spain or risk their lives in a backstreet clinic.

This will leave only Ireland, Malta and Poland banning abortion within the EU. I wonder how long it will take before they catch up with the modern world?