On October 27, 2021, the proposed State Budget for 2022 was rejected in the Assembly of the Republic. The proposal received a vote in favor from the Socialist Party (PS), abstentions from the People-Animals-Nature (PAN) party and the two non-affiliated deputies, and votes against from all other parties with parliamentary representation on the left: the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (PEV), and the Left Bloc (BE); and on the right: the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the CDS-People's Party (CDS-PP), the Liberal Initiative (IL), and Chega (CH). Following the rejection of the budget, the President of the Republic dissolved the Assembly of the Republic and scheduled elections for January 30, 2022.
The parties or coalitions that won seats in the Assembly of the Republic in the 2019 legislative elections are now running again and presenting their objectives, priorities, and the paths to achieve these objectives through their electoral programs. Electoral programs outline the lines of action and proposals for governance during the next four-year period, and therefore it is important to compare the electoral programs of the various political parties. This is particularly relevant in the area of health and nutrition, which is of specific interest to us.
As has been our tradition, we already carried out this exercise in 2019 here at Pensar Nutrição , and now we are repeating this analysis for the 2022 legislative elections. The methods used to compare programs and policies have grown in sophistication in recent decades . They can compare political processes and their evolution over time, the structures used for their implementation (for example, within or outside the government), the proposals and objectives, or the results, for example. In general, comparative analysis uses qualitative methods.
In this text, we merely describe the current proposals of the different political forces in a simplified way and analyze their evolution over time in the area of food and nutrition. We emphasize that the selection of the information considered most relevant from each political program and its aggregation into different areas of intervention or political culture reflects the authors' perception.
We can draw some initial conclusions right away.
Similar to 2019, there is no clear and visible ideological division in the proposals regarding nutrition and food policies. That is, while we can generally divide political options between a more protective and guarantor state in health, education, and the economy, as opposed to a less present state that essentially fulfills a regulatory role and opens much more space to the private sector in different economic policies, this division is beginning to become visible in the area of health policies, although still timidly in centrist parties (it should be remembered that currently the majority of citizens, 97%, believe that the main priority should be investment in the National Health Service ), but certainly less so in policies related to food and nutrition. In general, no priorities are defined in electoral programs in this respect, and the discussion about the sustainability of the NHS and its human resources still focuses largely on attracting, retaining, and developing the professional skills of medical and nursing staff (particularly general and family medicine specialists) and less on multidisciplinary health teams.
Public policies in the area of food and nutrition in Portugal have undergone rapid and decisive evolution in recent decades , adopting increasingly broad-spectrum strategies aimed at intervening in different sectors of the food system and using a wide variety of tools. These range from actions aimed solely at improving citizens' knowledge of food and nutrition issues and empowering them to make healthier food choices, to more interventionist strategies on the food environment that aim to reach all citizens to a greater or lesser degree, regardless of their level of literacy or interest in the subject. However, this ideological division regarding the greater or lesser presence of the State in the food system is less visible in the definition of programmatic proposals in food and nutrition, now that they are gaining greater weight in public policies, partly due to the visibility and impact of inadequate nutrition on the loss of healthy years of life for the Portuguese population.
Another aspect, likely influenced by the current health crisis, is the increased attention to health, which is much more present in most 2022 election programs compared to 2019. The pandemic crisis, in particular, but also the accelerated aging of the national population, the increase in healthcare costs, and the perception that preventive aspects are crucial for the balance of the National Health Service (SNS) have led to this area gaining prominence in the election programs of various parties in 2022. Health, and in particular disease prevention and health promotion, are gaining weight in most current election programs. Prevention, quality of life, and the adoption of healthy lifestyles are now important themes in the programs of the main parties.
Finally, and also very importantly, there is a greater quality and detail in the programmatic proposals related to food and nutrition in 2022, particularly from the two main political parties, the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which even mention the need for public programs in the area of promoting healthy eating. The promotion of healthy eating is gaining weight in the programs of the different parties, particularly at the level of primary health care, where food and nutrition are increasingly integrated into the portfolio of community interventions with greater autonomy. This is an area that was already mentioned more frequently in the programs of parties that we can consider more to the left, but which is now expanding to a wider range of parties. This greater centrality of nutrition and the promotion of healthy eating in the current programs of the two main political parties contrasts with the programmatic proposals of 2019, where food issues were concentrated in parties with less influence, such as PAN, or around very specific and opportunistic areas such as school meals.
Taking into account these initial general considerations, we can say that the proposals of the political parties in their 2022 electoral programs focus on 3 main areas:
1) the need/reinforcement of public policies/national programs to promote healthy eating (PS, PSD, Livre);
2) a strong commitment to promoting health and preventing disease, acting on the main determinants of health (PS, PSD, Livre, BE);
3) Strengthening the responsiveness of primary health care in the area of nutrition (PS, BE).
Final Notes
Over the last decade and since January 2012, Portugal has been developing a food and nutrition strategy, primarily centered on the Ministry of Health (DGS/PNPAS) and in collaboration with other Ministries and stakeholders. This strategy identified the main needs of the population and created and implemented broad-spectrum solutions, making our country an international reference in public policies in the area of food and nutrition. This intense experimentation and application of public strategies, from laws regulating the supply of food in public spaces and advertising for food aimed at children to national campaigns promoting healthy eating, and its effectiveness, is well documented, fully available, and can be read and downloaded at https://alimentacaosaudavel.dgs.pt/. We hope that this experience, which is in the public domain, can be increasingly used in the discussion of public policy proposals in this area.
The authors are professors of Nutrition Policy at FCNAUP. They have been or are currently linked to the National Program for the Promotion of Healthy Eating (PNPAS) of the Directorate-General of Health. The authors have no conflict of interest, no party affiliation, and no personal interests in the field.
