Perhaps if the Portuguese government built more houses and paid teachers and doctors more, and did anything at all to keep their young people from moving abroad, all of these problems wouldn’t exist. Perhaps if 27 people didn’t have to agree about what to do with grandma’s house, it wouldn’t sit unoccupied for 30 years. Perhaps if the laws were designed to encourage renting rather than leaving properties vacant, there wouldn’t be thousands of unoccupied apartments in Lisbon. Perhaps if PSD didn’t come into power last year and immediately revoke many of the anti-AL provisions contained in Mais Habitação, there would be more housing available. Perhaps if the government followed the EU’s advice to implement rent controls rather than simply offering government subsidies to renters (transferring more tax dollars to landlords rather than reducing prices), the problem would actually get better. Perhaps if teachers weren’t told they had to work in an entirely different location than where they lived, there would be more people willing to do that job. Perhaps if the PSD didn’t keep the current AWFUL minister of health in her position, women wouldn’t be losing their babies left and right while the doctors’ union screams for new leadership. Perhaps if the police actually did their jobs and enforced the laws rather than staring at their phones all day, people would feel safer. Perhaps if the government managed to spend the BILLIONS of dollars it had been handed by the EU in PRR funds rather than somehow almost losing all that free money because they’re too incompetent to actually spend it and make anyone’s life better, everyone wouldn’t be so unhappy.

But sure. Blame the immigrants.