Augusto Santos Silva explains Portugal's successful way out of the crisis

<h3 class&equals;"chapo-article">Portugal's Foreign Minister explains how the country, which was Europe's weakest link two years ago, has successfully emerged from the crisis;<&sol;h3>&amp;NewLine;<div class&equals;"paywall">&amp;NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"question">Is there a Portuguese economic miracle &amp;quest;<&sol;h4>&amp;NewLine;<p>I don't think so&amp;period; There&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;s no miracle but the fruit of the efforts of&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;a constant policy&amp;period; The 2017 public accounts will be closed with a deficit of 1&amp;comma;4 &amp;percnt; of GDP and a very positive primary balance&amp;period; We have emerged from the excessive deficit procedure&amp;period; We have revived exports&amp;comma; achieved 2&amp;comma;6 &amp;percnt; growth and halved unemployment &amp;lpar;to 7&amp;comma;8 &amp;percnt; in December 2017&amp;comma; NDLR&amp;rpar;&amp;period; Now we need to stay the course&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"question">You benefited from&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;a favorable cycle&amp;&amp;num;8230&amp;semi;<&sol;h4>&amp;NewLine;<p>Yes, undoubtedly&amp;comma; but we have been able to make the most of it&amp;period; We are aware of&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;a cyclical effect and we must prepare ourselves to face the shock of&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;a possible change of cycle&amp;period; This is why&amp;comma; at European level&amp;comma; we need to complete monetary union&amp;period; And at national level&amp;comma; it is important not to incur unsustainable expenditure&amp;period; For example, the salaries of Portuguese civil servants have been frozen since 2009&amp;period; We have pledged not to touch anything until 2019, and we're sticking to that pledge&amp;period; So far, we've been content to very gradually roll back the wage and pension cuts that were temporarily applied to them under the Troika&amp;period; It can't be said that the Portuguese are spendthrifts&amp;period; It's very important to&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;avoid sending out the wrong message of a return to the imbalances of the recent past&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;<&sol;div>&amp;NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"question">How did Portugal escape austerity?<&sol;h4>&amp;NewLine;<p>We have invested politically in the population's confidence and succeeded in reactivating domestic demand&amp;comma; but without calling into question the rules of the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;euro and&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;membership of Europe&amp;period; We haven't invented anything&amp;period; we're simply&amp;comma; among those who believe that it's wrong&amp;comma; from an economic point of view&amp;comma; and unfair&amp;comma; from a social point of view&amp;comma; to try to&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;balance public accounts on the sole basis of the economic situation;balance public accounts on the sole basis of a restrictive policy&amp;period; The Portuguese case proves it&amp;comma; true fiscal consolidation can only be achieved with growth&amp;period; If we promote economic growth&amp;period; families' incomes and companies' production conditions&amp;comma; internal demand increases&amp;period; But this must be done without jeopardizing the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;other pillar of the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;economy&amp;comma; external growth&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"question">You have been criticized for skipping over structural reforms&amp;&amp;num;8230&amp;semi;<&sol;h4>&amp;NewLine;<p>We have completed the most important task&amp;comma; that of balancing the public accounts, which is fundamental&amp;comma; for all of us who share the monetary union&amp;period; On the economic front&amp;comma; we have not touched the &amp;rsquo&amp;semi;have not touched the &amp;lpar;labor flexibilization&amp;rpar; law of 2012&amp;period; But we have introduced our own agenda with reforms in vocational training and&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;education&amp;comma; company capitalization&amp;comma; regional planning and the reduction of inequalities&amp;period; It's true that we eliminated certain measures of the previous government&amp;comma; such as wage and pension cuts or additional income tax rates&amp;comma; but these were temporary and exceptional provisions&amp;comma; and we were content&amp;comma; to return to constitutional order by abolishing them&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"question">Many doubted the solidity of your project&amp;&amp;num;8230&amp;semi;<&sol;h4>&amp;NewLine;<p>For us&amp;comma; Europe is the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;other name for democracy in Portugal, and the European project is the only one we want to be part of&amp;period; Without a shadow of a doubt&amp;period; We respect the rules of the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;EU and the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;euro&amp;comma; even if we also want to work to change them a little&amp;comma; as Emmanuel Macron or Angela Merkel also want&amp;comma; but we have always been clear&amp;comma; we have no&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;other alternative than Europe&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"question">Did you have to tell your European partners &amp;quest;<&sol;h4>&amp;NewLine;<p>Yes&amp;period; We had to explain that we were not extremists&amp;comma; that we would never question Portugal's membership of the core EU&amp;period; that if we had to choose between the euro&amp;semi;euro and the fate of the Socialist Party's minority government&amp;comma; we would have no hesitation&amp;period; This was our message to those who were concerned about our pact with parties to the left of the Socialist Party&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"question">Portugal has become the fashionable country&amp;&amp;num;8230&amp;semi;<&sol;h4>&amp;NewLine;<p>But that's not all&amp;period; Our exports are also growing in&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;industry&amp;comma; the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;automotive&amp;comma; chemicals or transport&amp;period; Our economy is being transformed&amp;comma; thanks to the talent of&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;a highly qualified generation&amp;period; We are attracting quality investments&amp;comma; in cutting-edge sectors because we are a country open to innovation&amp;period; This is more important than the three-digit macroeconomic indicators&amp;period; In recent months&amp;period; We are no longer arguing with Brussels over the minutest details of our structural deficit forecasts&amp;period; This is reassuring &amp;excl;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;<div class&equals;"signature-article"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;lesechos&period;fr&sol;monde&sol;europe&sol;0301231019987-augusto-santos-silva-le-portugal-a-su-reactiver-la-demande-interieure-sans-remettre-en-cause-les-regles-de-leuro-2149687&period;php&num;dudsxfuxsrsttarr&period;99" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Source<&sol;a><&sol;div>&amp;NewLine;