Luca Visentini
There could be no better place for a European social summit than Portugal. Over the last decade, Portugal has experienced the worst of a Europe with weak social commitments and yet is now in the vanguard of building a Europe with a stronger social agenda.
Austerity measures pursued in the wake of the financial crisis doubled unemployment and devastated living standards. Portugal is one of six countries where real wages still haven’t recovered: a worker in Porto, where leaders gather today, could afford to buy less with their pay in 2019 than they could in 2010.
The number of people living in poverty despite being in work has increased over the last decade and working people now receive a smaller share of Portugal’s total wealth than they did ten years ago. By any measure, austerity increased inequality.