“There is something we can do already, which is to tax Elon Musk. We can. Portugal can tax Elon Musk, can tax the owner of Google, or Mark Zuckerberg [owner of Meta],” emphasized Mariana Mortágua during a campaign event held at the Theatre of Cerca de São Bernardo in Coimbra district.
In an unconventional format for an electoral campaign, Mariana Mortágua spoke for about an hour to an audience about the economic and political weight of tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Meta (which owns platforms such as Facebook and Instagram).
Accompanied by slides, similar to a lecture, the Left Bloc representative drew connections between the wealthiest individuals in the United States and the world, and the political power of Republican Donald Trump.
Mortágua warned that oligarchs like Musk, Zuckerberg, or Trump “are not that far” and referenced last month’s power outage to illustrate the influence certain companies can wield over the country.
“Imagine there is a blackout. It could happen one day. Imagine the company that generates our energy and electricity grid is owned by a foreign state—I know it’s unthinkable,” she mused. “Imagine we become dependent on satellites to access phones or the internet. And those phones and satellites belong to Elon Musk. And now? Elon Musk holds power over a country. He could blackmail us with anything,” she warned.
According to the Left Bloc, Portugal needs a “digital sovereignty network” to protect its citizens, and “the State has a role in this, both as a regulator and provider of these services.”
“Why do you have to have an email from Google to have an email? Why can’t there be an official, public email that doesn’t retain your data every time you want to do something?” she questioned, citing the digital mobile key, which allows access to various public services without sharing data with companies like Google, as a “brilliant example.”
One of Left Bloc’s proposals in the upcoming legislative elections includes creating an “Elon Musk tax”—named after the magnate and owner of the social network ‘X’, formerly Twitter—aimed at taxing large digital service companies, noting that these companies utilize user data.
“If Google retains our data when we access Google, it means that Google’s business is conducted in Portugal. The headquarters may be in Ireland or the Cayman Islands, but the business is conducted in Portugal. The data comes from Portugal, just like water used for energy production would come from Portugal, even if produced in another country. It is our raw material. And if the data comes from Portugal, then it should be taxed in Portugal,” she argued.
The top candidate from the Left Bloc for the district of Coimbra, Miguel Cardina, warned that we are witnessing “the dominance of moral misery” both globally and nationally, citing the “genocide in Gaza being broadcast on televisions that no one cares about” or “the era when Trump creates words of an obscene neologism like self-deportations”
“In Portugal, we also need to combat moral misery, to fight tech millionaires, and to tax the rich. In Portugal, we also need to say that genocide is unacceptable and that Palestine will win,” he asserted, criticizing “the perverse alliance between the chainsaw and the new far-right.”
During the first five days of the official campaign, the Left Bloc has opted for formats different from the usual, resembling talk shows or presentations like today’s.
Avoiding visits to markets, fairs, or street walks, the Left Bloc has not engaged with voters on the streets, relying instead on a “door-to-door” approach without the presence of media.
[Updated at 8:32 PM]
