Is “Portugal 2011” worse than “Portugal 1974”?

Great for being dissatisfied with the present and pessimistic over the future. These are some of the conclusions of a new study «As escolhas dos Portugueses e o projecto Farol» that comes from a survey of 1002 people, taken by GFK Consulting.

For 46 per cent of those questioned, the current social and economic climate is considered to be worse, even much worse, than life 40 years ago - before the 25th April revolution.

If the comparison was made with a more recent period, perspectives are still pretty grim. More than half Portuguese (58 per cent) see current everyday life as worse, or much worse, than that of 25 years ago – i.e. before Portugal entered the EEC.

For 81 per cent of Portuguese, the main national problem is unemployment, followed by the health system and family debt (that concerns of 26 per cent of those queried). A huge majority (78 per cent) believe the country is going in the wrong direction, and more than half (53 per cent) feel the social and economic situation nationally will be worse, or much worse, within the next ten years.

The inquiry also reveals huge distrust by citizens of the political system. Around 90 per cent of those queried said they didn’t trust, or barely trusted, politicians. Also target for extreme national distrust is the court system, the unions and public administration.

The need for a economically sustainable plan for the future (49 per cent) and increase in productivity (45 per cent) are ways forward considered by most of those questioned – putting into second place other aspects of sustainability: the need for more civic entrepreneurism (14%), social reforms (12%), more private initiatives (12%) and more technology and innovation (12%).

“Projecto Farol” is a think tank from Deloitte Circle that aims to “diagnose the national reality”.

It aims to come up with a route-map for the development of the country to 2020, and is promoted by big names in business like Belmiro de Azevedo, Daniel Proença de Carvalho, Jorge Marrão, António Pinho Cardão, José Maria Brandão and Manuel Alves Monteiro.