The Portuguese Communist Party scheduled for Thursday, September 17th, a national day of protest against the increase in the cost of living, demanding a general increase in wages and pensions, as well as the fixing and control of prices of essential goods. The communists' decision comes as a direct reaction to the worsening burden on families, precipitated by rising fuel prices and the new increase in interest rates by the European Central Bank. The initiative includes rallies, demonstrations and direct contact actions with workers and communities in various locations throughout the country, including a street action in the early morning at Cais do Sodré, in Lisbon.
The announcement of the mobilizations was coordinated from the party's national headquarters in Lisbon, where the communist leadership assessed the impact of international macroeconomic decisions and the measures adopted by the Government. The catalyst for this new wave of protests was the European Central Bank's decision to increase the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, raising it to 2.5 percent — the second increase recorded in the current calendar year. For the party leadership, the Frankfurt decision constitutes a "double penalty" on Portuguese families, amplified by the prevalence of home loan contracts indexed to variable rates.
In a statement issued by the communist delegation in the European Parliament, in Brussels, the party requested an urgent debate in the plenary session in Strasbourg on the conduct of the European monetary authority, advocating the use of the financial margins of the banking sector to compensate indebted families. The communists denounce that the additional burden of bank loans transfers resources from the productive economy directly to banking profits.
The PCP's demands for the street actions rest on three immediate pillars: the extraordinary and general update of all salaries and retirement pensions, State intervention in the pricing of essential goods, and a brake on energy costs. The acceleration of inflation indices in August, driven by the rise in diesel prices and the increase in school expenses at the start of the academic year, has intensified social protest.
