my rib marketer rejoiced at the latest Ben & Jerry's ad.
Timely, direct, factual, with a strong image associated with the traditional vanilla flavor, it seeks an analogy between the overlapping of the majority's power of choice, in relation to our true interest and, in this way, calls for a vote in the next legislative.
According to the announcement (they did not indicate the source, but these numbers are really frightening), «in Portugal, 51% of the population did not vote in the last legislative elections. And instead of choosing what you want, you end up proving what you don't want».
And he continues: «Have you ever imagined a world where your choices don't matter? A world where the only flavor… is vanilla?”
Nothing against vanilla (personally, I prefer a flavor with chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chips and more chocolate), but being in favor of free choice through knowledge, I decided to share with you what the main voting parties have to offer us in relation to the theme "Family". As a woman and mother of two girls, this is a subject that interests me greatly.
Without any order, I will present the references that I found in the electoral programs of each party.
I start with the PS. The PS presents «12 PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS».
Direct and without major embellishments, it presents three priorities associated with the «Family»:
– Free day care, progressively, until 2024
– Approve legislative changes to the Decent Work Agenda in the AR by July
– Discuss new ways of balancing working times, including considering the applicability of four-day weeks in different sectors.
No PSD electoral program, I found these references:
– Prenatal family allowance: expansion of the beneficiary base, 50% increase for the second child and 100% for the third and subsequent children. Increase for families residing in the interior of the country.
– Increase parental leave from 20 to 26 weeks from the second child onwards, with the requirement that the second half of the parental leave period (13 weeks) be shared at least 50% of the time with the other parent.
– Universalization of crèche and kindergarten, from 6 months to 5 years old, on social, public and private networks, through the creation of a national network of crèches and kindergartens that tend to be free of charge.
– Incentive program for the establishment of day care centers and kindergartens by municipalities, IPSSs and companies or associations of companies, using community funds for the construction and rehabilitation of nurseries, day care centers and nurseries.
In relation to CDS-PP, the FAMILY COMMITMENT is presented «which aims to promote birth rates, returning income, ensuring support for early childhood education and giving priority to a family-friendly housing policy».
Measures: Establish, from the second child (inclusive), the descent of 1 step in the IRS table for each additional child;
– Double the family allowance (to €130/month) for families with an annual income of less than €27.500
– Strengthen the network of day care centers and kindergartens (+6 months) and ensure national coverage;
– Fully exempt from taxes the purchase of the 1st home;
– Return to young tenants up to the age of 35 the income tax borne by the owner of the property (28%);
– Renting available State properties, at values 20% below the market price, on condition that they are intended for housing for young people up to 35 years old and included in the first two levels of IRS;
– Fully deduct, in the IRS, the amount invested in Housing Savings accounts;
Stability in employment, working hours and housing, as well as rising wages;
Free day care for all children and the creation of a public network of day care centers, or similar solutions, increasing the number of places by one hundred thousand;
Increase and universalization of family allowance and prenatal allowance and enhancement of other social support for childhood and youth;
Expansion of the public pre-school education network, guaranteeing a place for all children from 3 years old;
Reinforcement and respect for maternity and paternity rights; revocation of the resource condition and other restrictive criteria in the attribution of social benefits;
Prevention of inequalities, discrimination and violence, ensuring equality at work and in life, fulfilling women's rights.
Na ENOUGH page, I found many lines and paragraphs, but concrete measures…
1. Primacy of morals. CHEGA is affiliated with the Portuguese, European and Western civilizational tradition as it presupposes that the moral primacy of self-responsibility precedes and determines everything else in the human condition. In the religious field, self-responsibility derives from the ancient Jewish-Christian matrix and, in the intellectual field, it derives from the ancient Greco-Roman matrix.
42. Birth. CHEGA will seek to converge with European countries in terms of family benefits, labor rights and other benefits and incentives that promote an increase in birth rates, in cases where both parents are of Portuguese nationality and are officially resident in Portugal.
38. Family. CHEGA places the family at the heart of its conception of society. It is the base cell that guarantees the preservation, renewal and socialization of the moral order and civic culture, hence it is the family that prepares social and political stability, as well as individual and collective fulfillment and prosperity.
39. Family Ministry. Given the significant decline in the social relevance of the role of the family in recent decades, dominated by the ascendancy of the State over Society, and in order to rebalance this relationship by refocusing it on the inalienable role of the family, CHEGA proposes the creation of the Ministry of the Family. It is an inescapable function of the State to put the family, and its role in the education of children, in the central place that is its own.
The Left Block program presents these proposals:
– Recognize and include in the Labor Code salaried domestic work and professional work associated with care (home support, family day care nannies, family helpers), putting an end to the discrimination that the law establishes and guaranteeing the same social protection that everyone enjoys. workers on behalf of others;
– Reduction of working hours to 35 hours and opening to the possibility of a 4-day week;
– Combating the deregulation of working hours, with the replacement of full payment for overtime (eliminating the troika cut), limiting and regulating the use of the figure of “time exemption” and the generalization of continuous work;
– Extend parenting rights (father's initial leave, increase in shared leave, reduced working hours in the first 3 years of the child's life), and the rights of fathers and mothers of children with disabilities, chronic or oncological diseases and for monitoring dependent person (licenses for informal caregivers);
In the PAN:
– Defending more time to live: 35 hours of work per week and 25 days of vacation per year for everyone.
The Liberal Initiative also enjoy writing:
«This electoral program embodies our vision of society and contains around 100 concrete, detailed and explained proposals. We make it a point, once again, to be clear in what we propose. Those who vote for the Liberal Initiative know exactly what they are choosing. It is clear how we intend to make Portugal grow and provide more opportunities for well-paid employment that do not force our most qualified young people to emigrate. It is clear how we want to reform the SNS and end waiting lists and prevent the collapse of Health. It is clear how we want to slim down the State and eliminate the circumstances in which cronyism and corruption flourish».
Clarity about “Family”:
– Formulate a multidisciplinary strategy in order to ensure a better and faster State response in situations of domestic violence.
Warning: these are just excerpts, they do not invalidate a closer reading of each of the electoral programs. I made available for that, the links of each party.
Remember: this Sunday, January 30th, the most important thing is to vote. Nothing against vanilla, but there are many more flavors.
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