Welcome to the Week em Breve! This Week’s News in Portugal: Portugal Out-Drinks Russia, Scooter Scandal, the Young Folk Have Measles, No Drone deterrent, and much more!
Vandalism Continues With Broken Cars and Burning Buses
The ramifications for the anti-police violence demonstrations last week are still being felt across the country. Additional attacks were carried out in Setúbal and Sintra, and while the police maintain that there is no established connection to previous firebombings, they are generally being framed within the same overarching issues. The attacks resulted in a burned bus, a broken police car, and identification of three children, one of whom was taken into custody.
SOS Racismo Organizer Harassed Following Facebook Post
Following an incident between the police and residents in Bairro da Jamaica, adviser to the Left Bloc and SOS Racismo organizer Mamadou Ba referred to the police as “bullshit” in a social media post. This quickly gained traction and has resulted in the activist being harassed, allegedly by people on the far right. This has got to a point where he feels his life is in danger, and he has called for police protection.
There’s Only One Lime You Should Have With Your Tequila
Thought you could drink those 15 little beers and scooter home? Think again. It remains illegal to drink and drive any kind of vehicle, which includes motorized scooters. An 18-year-old found this out the hard way after receiving a 250€ fine while riding in Marvila with a blood alcohol level of 1.08.
Portugal Outdrinking Russia
However, it seems our scooter-riding friend isn’t alone, with Portugal overtaking Russia in their alcohol consumption per capita. The European average is 9.8 liters per year, but Portugal flies past this with 12.3 liters per year, now higher than Russia’s 11.7 liters. However, this isn’t down to more boozing here, but rather a reduction in Russia, and, despite the high figures, alcohol-related deaths are far lower in Portugal than the EU average.
The CTT Competitor
Anyone who has dealt with the Portuguese post office will probably be writhing in their seat as they read the letters CTT, but no, there is a new player on the scene. Correos, the Spanish state-owned company, has announced that it will begin delivering parcels in Portugal. This is part of a wider expansion, and they aim to be able to deliver packages across the Iberian Peninsula in 24 hours. If you want to see how CTT are doing and practice your Portuguese statistical-vocab at the same time, check out the graphs of their performance since privatization.
Measles on the Rise
In a similar story to the rest of the EU, Portugal experienced a significant bump in the number of measle cases in 2018. In fact, it was almost five times higher than the year before, with a total of 162 cases, the majority of which occurred in 25- to 34-year olds. Amazingly, 51% of reported cases were in “health professionals.”
Fitch Expects Growth Slowdown
While Portugal can expect to grow above the Eurozone average this year, by 2020 it will fall behind, growing at just 1.5% compared with the EU’s 1.6%, according to rating agency Fitch. The Portuguese government has projected much higher growth rates, but, while not downgrading the projection, has admitted that the country is entering a “new phase of the economic cycle.” If Fitch is right, this could mean that Portugal has already peaked and will see a return to growth rates far lower than its recent highs of 2.8%.
You Can Keep Going Wild With Your Drone
Despite the registration of drones becoming mandatory in July of last year, it is still not being done. Why? Because the electronic platform needed to register them does not yet exist! Therefore, after much ado over drone behavior that “jeopardize[s] the safety of all,” there have been no registrations or sanctions and no fixed time when there will be.
Think we missed an important story? Let us know in the comments!
