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| Crowd participating in the June 6th mobilization of the Communist Party to launch the ongoing election campaign |
“Eles comem tudo e
não deixam nada/ They eat everything and leave nothing” says the song by Zeca
Afonso. The singer-songwriter also wrote “Grândola Vila Morena”, which became
an anthem during the Portuguese April Revolution. These words are probably the
best description of the situation the people of Portugal are currently living
in. The title of this song is “Os Vampiros/ The Vampires”, referring at the time it was
written to the capitalists who kept Portugal under the rule of a fascist
dictatorship until 1974.
Although the
country was able to overthrow the Estado Novo regime and adopt one of the most
progressive constitutions in Europe (thanks largely to the Communists),
Portugal, along with Greece, is one of the European countries most affected by
austerity programs imposed by the Troika. The European Union, the European
Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are the new vampires who “eat
everything but don’t leave anything” for the people.
More than 128,000
people from Portugal chose to leave their country in 2013, and their number
keeps increasing year after year. More than 1.5 million Portuguese have decided
to live in France. That is about 15% of the total population currently living
inside Portugal.
