In an interview with Dinheiro Vivo, Álvaro Beleza, the new president of one of the oldest think tanks [centros de estudos] from Portugal, SEDES, strongly defends the railroad, at high speed. He has doubts about the need for more airports. He says that when the vaccine arrives, it won’t be for everyone. He does not believe there is a second wave of the covid pandemic.
He is a doctor who will help to examine the country. Álvaro Beleza is 61 years old and is the director of the Blood Service at Hospital de Santa Maria. He is also a professor of transfusion medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.
He held several positions in the Ordem dos Médicos, having been a member of its national executive council between 2007 and 2011. He has been a member of the Socialist Party since 1985 and has been a member of the National Political Commission since 2011. He feels that he has been with the PS “for a long time”
.
He will be the first doctor to lead SEDES, an association dedicated to reflecting on the economic and social challenges since 1970. In this interview with Dinheiro Vivo, he says that he was first surprised to have been elected president of the Association for Economic Development and Social (SEDES), but soon realized the reason: these are new and problematic times, we are in the middle of a serious pandemic. (Part 4 of 5 of the interview)
What is your opinion of the government’s performance, how do you evaluate the management of the pandemic crisis? In the confinement, people noticed and the government knew how to communicate, but in the confinement there were disturbances, some noise and then results that came out badly. Could the authorities and the Government have done better in the deflation or did it go as possible?
I don’t think everything went well and everything did not go as the Government hoped, but that is also part of life and, by the way, I also commented on television. When we were increasing cases here, other countries were decreasing, so we entered the black list and the others were going to increase (as they did) and I was right. It has to do with oscillations. This is a pandemic and the curves are nonetheless. This decreases, then increases, then decreases. And so, Portugal had this problem, but it could have gone better. The thing that impresses me a lot, I am sincere, in a lack of definition, is that there was no single criterion. I don’t understand why you can have a music festival at Avante and you can’t have stadiums with capacity for seventy thousand people, with twenty thousand inside, for example, in lines with a safe distance, do you understand?
I understand, but can’t the case of football be more delicate because of the degree of emotionality that exists during games?
No, because people know that in this situation, banning alcohol at football stadiums… Dividing Estádio da Luz, where there are these finals… If people had been divided by several sectors, we would have had a lot less people, all with a mask (mandatory mask) , closed, simple place and the rules are the same for everyone. You can be outdoors as long as you have a mask and you are not crowded. Therefore, the rules have to be the same for everyone.
Are the rules different in the case of parties?
It’s like everything in life. This is the only flaw I detect, that is, the Republic lives on political parties, which are fundamental pillars. I myself have been a member of the Socialist Party for many years and with great pride, and I think that people should do political militancy and should show their face and say what they are, it is not this ‘I am independent’ thing, that is not exist. We have a color, an opinion, we are what we are and parties are fundamental. There is no democracy without parties. And therefore, they have to be supported. But not more than others. And so, in a situation like this, I think this is bad. It is bad and worries me because the Communist Party is an aged party, very familiar, in which people are grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, children. It is not the only one, but the Communist Party is much like that. I worked for many years in Évora. I set up a service there, I loved it and I know it reasonably well, and I worry because I’m afraid that at this party, if thousands of people go there, young people may contaminate parents and grandparents.
The Communist Party is known for its capacity for organization and discipline, and the PCP’s secretary general, Jerónimo de Sousa, said something, little relevant, which is the fact that Quinta da Atalaia is a huge space where 33 thousand people a day can be easily accommodated with safety distances. Why does this happen around the Festa do Avante? Can it be politics, politiquice?
It is also a bit. There is exploitation against the PCP. But what I think is that it could have been allowed and a brutal crisis in culture was beginning. As well as some theater shows and others, and well. Outdoor shows should have been allowed, as long as there was no alcohol, for example. Because alcohol alters behavior and some distance. Rules: the territory was divided … I think it was possible to do that and perhaps things would be more accepted by everyone.
Did the lack of definition fall short of what the economy needed? Could you have suspected more without taking risks?
The lack of definition was reasonable, even went well. In fact, now, the pandemic numbers are good. But I defend equal criteria for everyone. It seems to me excessive not to have allowed less people, let alone people, at football stadiums…
They are modern structures.
Exactly. And nowadays, if there is one thing that we have the best … Our children are informed. Everyone is much more informed. People are not stupid. People are reasonable, they are more rational, they read all the information. It is not possible to treat people like children, they are not children. They are also children, but children today know more than we did when we were children. And therefore, you have to be very careful that the rules are the same. And this question, since we are talking about Avante, for me, the biggest concern is that it serves to fatten the Chega and idiots of the call… I don’t even call it extreme right… I think that is ultra idiocy, I am sincere . But this is fattening, isn’t it? Because I think we have to be very careful with the question of equal treatment for equal questions. Overall, I think the ministry was doing well, health was doing well.
The policies of budgetary restraint, of great discipline, in the adjustment program and already with the PS, of not giving in immediately to the demands of salary updates and progressions. We had this in Education and Health. Didn’t it demotivate people?
It is true. And there was a lot of injustice because, in the end, the health system, which is more modern than other state systems – I am talking comparatively with other sectors of the state – was not awarded for being good and had cuts and only now have we reached the European average in terms of health financing. We were below the European average. And that was unfair, I think, even for the system.
Have we had years of underfunded public health?
Because whoever decided where the money goes realized that the system was so good that it could handle less money, even if it was wrong. And that’s what happens Sometimes in the management of hospitals.
How long are we talking about management?
We are talking about ten years or more. Since 2011, yes. From the adjustment program. The cut in health was brutal.
And was that criterion that presided?
So when you cut a billion euros in one year … or two. Is very.
The International Monetary Fund and the European Commission knew that there was that degree of efficiency. Did you lean against these indicators to force or justify the financial adjustment that later took place?
On the one hand, on the other hand, they decided to cut where it was easier and where they cut at once, in a more blind and more brutal way.
But this is in people too, isn’t it? No more admissions and careers froze.
This is a problem and people are very angry. But as it turned out, when it was necessary for these professionals to show up, they love the jersey.
Economy Minister Siza Vieira and Minister of Public Administration, Alexandra Leitão, have already said that there may not be conditions to make the promised salary updates, in the various aspects, next year. Do you think the health personnel, in particular, will receive this well?
No. But I admit that there is no money to increase spending on social status, on personnel. But it is general, it is not only in health.
But if there is a billion euros for TAP, there should also be for Health, is that the idea?
That’s what I was telling you about TAP. I have doubts about TAP. Because I think being on a billion euros … billion in health is brutal. With a billion euros in health, a lot can be done, including investment. And it’s not just people. I’m talking about facilities, equipment that is very worn out because there was little investment. But health also has to take a turn. And we are going to address this in this group that I am referring to, because I think it is also possible, in a system that works well, to have many redundancies. I am director of the service, but I am also a manager.
At the Blood Service of Hospital de Santa Maria.
Yes. That had a budget of 25 million euros in 2011 and today has around 17 million. There were 20 thousand consultations per year and today we have 55 thousand. So, let’s see, it is possible to increase capacity, decrease expenditure on redundant issues and increase investment. It’s possible. But, to be clear, it is not always possible.
