The Portuguese parliament has just approved the European Union’s “bailout” plan for Greece, the same plan that calls for Draconian austerity against the Greek workers. The plan enjoyed the support of the governing Socialist Party and the parties of the Portuguese right wing. Up to this point, there would be no reason for surprise. What is truly disgraceful is the vote in favor of this “bailout” by the so-called Bloco de Esquerda (“bloc of the left”). The Bloco de Esquerda (BE) is a coalition of different leftist organizations, including the Workers International League (LIT, from its initials in Spanish), through its Portuguese section, Ruptura-Fer. In view of the disaster of other “broad parties,” like Respect in Great Britain or the recent crisis of the PSOL in Brazil, the BE was being presented as a “victory” of this type of coalitions with reformist programs, because in the most recent Portuguese elections the BE managed to double the number of its deputies (currently having 16 seats).

The Bloco de Esquerda justified its vote in favor of the “bailout” with the excuse that “rejecting the loan in the current circumstances would mean imposing bankruptcy on Greece”, as its deputy Cecilia Honório said. This shameful justification, which puts them in the position of trailing the policy of the imperialists of the European Union and IMF and on the opposite path from the Greek working class and young people, only shows that these projects of “broad parties,” far from being an alternative so that the capitalists pay for the crisis, instead of workers, are bankrupt.