11,600 Azoreans waiting for surgery. These are impressive figures, primarily when they reflect the disastrous results of the work done on health in the Azores over the last four years by the right-wing governments (with the support of the extreme right), made up of people who previously never tired of denouncing these exact figures (also awful, it must be said) on the surgical waiting lists of the PS majority governments.

The Azores have seen a very unsatisfactory evolution (from around 27% to around 22%) in terms of the early school leaving rate since 2019, remaining the second region in Europe with the highest rate of this index of developmental delay. According to INE, the figure is almost three times higher than the national average (8%). One in four young people in the region between 18 and 24 is now an early school leaver.

The poverty rate in the Azores in 2023 increased from 21.9% to 25.1%. The same document notes that the rate of severe material and social deprivation fell in all regions of Portugal between 2021 and 2022, except the Azores. In 2022, one in ten people in the Azores was in severe material and social deprivation. The Azores (9.8%) is the region of the country where this rate is highest (for example, in the Alentejo, it doesn’t reach 4%).

In 2023, the Azores will still be the most unequal region in the country. The region with the highest income inequality (as measured by the so-called Gini coefficient) has also experienced the greatest increase in inequality compared to the previous year.

At the end of 2022, the average gross regular salary in the Azores was €1,086, which, taking inflation into account, meant a 2.3% loss in real value compared to the previous year. At the same time, the national average was €1,411, and the European Union average was €2,393.

In terms of overall development, the European Union’s Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI) tells us that the Azores are at the tail end of Europe and that, from 2016 to 2022, the Azores’ RCI has risen ridiculously from 65.3% to 65.5% of the European average, while these figures have skyrocketed in the other regions of the country.

With the arrival of the right-wingers in regional power, the only fundamentally positive strategic change was the single inter-island fare of €60, which was then “compensated” by the end of maritime passenger connections between all the islands. Conjuncturally positive: the advanced counting of teachers’ length of service and the fall in job insecurity in some sectors. The much-trumpeted “tax cuts” have benefited most Azoreans and their companies but only the wealthiest and most prominent economic sectors.

Suppose the previous PS administrations, remarkably the last few, were (rightly) considered generally harmful by the Azorean electorate. In that case, there is very little to be proud of in those who came to take their place, bringing with them the panacea of significant changes. The reality is there: we insist on marking when we urgently need to overcome the severe delays in regional development, cohesion between islands, and social justice.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the significant opinions on some of the archipelago’s issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL)