ABSTRACT
MARIA HELENA SERÔDIO By the beginning of 2000 there were major signs in Portugal of an imminent crisis
in both the political and the cultural spheres. It was the beginning of a second term
for the Socialist Party’s programme, intended to implement a kind of a modest Wel-
fare State, but the many contradictions arising out of different strategies – even within
the party itself – made it difficult to form a clear policy. An ambiguous policy could
hardly survive some hard facts it had to face: tough rules prescribed by the European
Community, a decline in economic growth (factories closing and fields left untilled,
with claims in both cases that the cost of production would be too high), low
productivity, an inefficient managerial class, a tax policy favouring fiscal evasion
for the big enterprises and penalising workers. The difficult financial situation brought
the inevitable social disquiet, and the cultural realm was bound to be affected.
