Valerosian Citizens Protest Against the Vila Government's Plan to Raise Pension Age

"We want our pensions, we want them now" came the chants of youthful political activists and elderly pensioners alike, as they walked down the main boulevard in Acevara towards the federal parliament, where they hoped to get lawmaker's attention as they protested plans from the liberal government to raise the retirement age.

"I think it is inhumane" says Luiz Cunha, as she walks with the protestors. "I worked for years - taking care of children, me and my husband both. I paid my share, and now the government tells me its not good enough. Maybe its time to raise the tax on the corporations to pay for it, huh?"

It is a proposition the Liberal Party under Prime Minister Tristão Vila has so far refused to consider, claiming his term will see no new taxes levelled on Valerosian businesses or the middle class.

"Let me be very clear" Vila claimed in a televised speech in parliament last week. "We cannot pay for our broken social system by breaking our economy under the weight of economic pressures such as high taxation, or national debt. I promise my government under the Liberals will be a fiscally responsible one."

Vila's government, a coalition of his Liberal Party, Center Party, and Centre-Left Party, was inaugurated just three months ago after a general election which saw his party gain a plurality of seats in the General Court. His party vowed in the election campaign to cut down on overburdening tax rates on the middle class, reduce government expenditure, and reduce the national debt. His government's tax credit for green businesses proposed by the popular Centre-Left finance minister, Zé Vaz, proved extremely popular, but just two months later, and his fortunes have turned around significantly.

"I think that when the Liberals gained more seats than us in cabinet after the election, it was fair as we were by far the most junior coalition partner" said Carlito Batista, the Center Party's chairman in an interview with local broadcaster RTV 2 News. "But nearly three months into government, and here we are a percentage point ahead of them in the polls with no sign that the polling fortunes will be reversed anytime soon - I think that we should be renegotiating the cabinet agreement in order to reflect the new political reality we find ourselves in".

So far the Liberal Party will hear none of it, with Prime Minister Vila saying that the Cabinet should be focused on pension reform, not the renegotiation of seats.

"It is just politics as usual when a party uses a crisis for their own gain" said Prime Minister Vila in an interview with RTV 2, ahead of a parliamentary debate. "Maybe the Center Party chairman should be more focused on getting results for the people in our country, for our economy, rather than for his party."

Despite the "new political reality" the country's political parties find themselves in at the moment, many people in the nation find themselves in a rather familiar one: grandparents worrying about the future of their pensions, and if they can retire as their bodies grow frailer and they get sick more often, working class parents who have spent the past 20 years doing physically taxing labour, and now having to worry if the pension they were counting on in their old age will still be there when they retire, or the young activists across the nation who see the struggle of the older generation, and are becoming more and more disconnected from the Liberal Party and their austerity politics.

"I just want my grandmother to not have to choose between working until she is 65 at a meat packaging plant, where she gets sick daily from the amount of physical labour she does, and keeping her lights on" says Socialist Party member Plácido Paiva, who has spent the past week at the protests. "Nevermind the fact that the Liberals have been working to shrink the budget, and now they are saying that because of their budget cuts we have to suffer? It's not right."

The sentiment of the protestors was not lost on the Socialist Party leader in parliament, who slammed the Liberals and their leader.

"Here in this chamber we have a party committing the murder of the working class" said Núria Cardoso, Socialist Party leader in a general floor debate on the pension reform bill. "we have a Prime Minister who looks down with disdain at elderly poor workers who have spent their years slaving under low wages, and now can no longer work. A Prime Minister who tells the 64 year old cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy, 'I know you are sick, but the budget demands you work another year before we help you', we have a Prime Minister who sits upon his high horse, preaching austerity, and fiscal responsibility from his government sponsored mansion, never having to budget money a day in his own life, to people who have to decide rather to go hungry due to unemployment, or keep damaging their bodies until they are old enough for the meager Credit Argents the government flings at them in pity."

Currently the future of the pension bill looks uncertain. While the Liberal Party remains committed, the Center Party has come out and said they will not whip their members, and will allow each member to 'vote their conscience', while the Centre-Left, while being critical of the bill, has remained completely silent on the matter. Though one thing is certain - Prime Minister Vila and his party are in trouble, and if his government cannot manage to pass the pension reform or find compromise, some fear it may end up in a snap election.

"There is no way Vila survives if his party keeps falling in the polls" says political expert Eleonoora Tuominen, for ABO News. "If his government can pass the pension reform on a compromise and placate the protestors, maybe he can survive with a mere cabinet reshuffle. But if he pushes it through as it is and his party keeps falling in the polls, or, what looks more likely the bill fails and the government scrambles to save it, you could see a loud and angry opposition join some disgruntled cabinet party to force a new election."