Domestic Politics

In the MpD’s direct party leadership elections on 8 January the incumbent Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva was re-elected unopposed with 99% of the valid votes. The turnout was 65% of the 29,449 registered party members. At the same time, 294 of 300 party delegates were elected, while six delegates in the United States were elected on 21 January. On 3–4 February, the 300 delegates participated in the MpD’s 11th convention. The delegates rejected new statutes proposed by the party leadership that introduced rules on incompatibilities and ineligibilities between party functions and senior positions in the public administration and state enterprises, because they were considered discriminatory to the rights of MpD members compared with members of other parties. Instead, the delegates only approved a resolution that made the exercise of party functions incompatible with executive positions in the public administration, public enterprises and ngos financed with public funds. Correia e Silva promised to submit a bill on the incompatibilities to parliament. The delegates also approved the principle of gender parity. Miguel Monteiro was elected as the party’s new secretary general.

In the paicv’s direct leadership elections on 29 January, Janira Hopffer Almada was re-elected unopposed, with 97% of the more than 20,000 votes cast, out of 34,720 registered voters. The paicv’s 15th ordinary congress, held in Praia on 17–19 February, was attended by 413 delegates. In her opening speech, Hopffer Almada assumed full responsibility for the party’s defeats in the legislative and municipal elections. She appealed for internal unity to strengthen the party and promised to continuously improve the party’s structures and capacities and to pursue a strong and constructive opposition to government action. Humberto Brito, a former minister of tourism, was elected chairman of the 50-member National Council, with 93% of the votes. Manuel Portugal was elected chairman of the seven-member National Council of Jurisdiction and Supervision. In turn, the National Council elected Julião Varela as the party’s secretary-general, while Hopffer Almada assumed the chair of the 21-member national Political Commission. The congress was marked by the absence of the ‘Grupo de Reflexão’, the about 20 opponents of Hopfffer Almada’s leadership.

On 28 April in the National Assembly, the opposition parties paicv and ‘União Cabo-verdiana Independente e Democrática’ (ucid) rejected a bill on the incompatibility between party functions and senior public jobs submitted by the MpD government. The 39 votes of the ruling party in favour of the law were insufficient to reach the necessary two-thirds majority of 72 deputies. Correia e Silva declared that, despite the rejection, the rule would be maintained that senior positions in the public administration could not be held simultaneously with leading party posts. paicv leader Hopffer Almada declared that her party had voted against the proposal because the MpD had rejected her party’s proposal to award public sector jobs only through a public application process.

On 20 December, Prime Minister Correia e Silva announced an expansion of the government by the appointment of two new ministers and six assistant secretaries of state. The Ministry of Economy and Employment headed by José Gonçalves was dismembered into three new ministries. Alexandre Monteiro became the head of the new Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy, while Gonçalves assumed another two portfolios, the Ministry of Tourism and Transport and the Ministry of Maritime Economy. The latter moved to Mindelo in São Vicente on the grounds that several administrative units related to the maritime economy were located in the city. Júlio Herbert was appointed deputy prime minister for regional integration, a portfolio that was withdrawn from the Foreign Ministry. The new assistant secretaries of state were Gilberto dos Barros (finance), Edna Oliveira (administrative modernisation), Pedro Lopes (innovation and vocational training), Paulo Lima Veiga (maritime economy), Carlos do Cano Monteiro (ministry of state) and Amadeu da Cruz (education). The purpose of the restructuring of the government was to improve its efficiency and strengthen political coordination.

Foreign Affairs

Portugal, the eu and ecowas dominated the diplomatic agenda. ecowas denied Cabo Verde the rotating presidency of its Commission. On 10 January, President Jorge Carlos Fonseca attended in Lisbon in the funeral of Mário Soares (1924–2017), the former Portuguese prime minister and president. In his message of condolence, Fonseca stressed the importance of Soares for Cabo Verde’s Independence in 1975. In December 1974, as foreign minister, Soares had headed the Portuguese delegation that negotiated the terms of the archipelago’s decolonisation.

During the 4th Portugal-Cabo Verde Summit held in Praia on 21 February, the two countries signed the Strategic Cooperation Programme 2017–2020, worth € 120 m, twice the value of the previous programme of € 56 m. At the meeting, Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa declared that his government was analysing a proposal for the resolution of Cabo Verde’s debt of € 200 m arising from the social housing programme ‘Casa para Todos’ that was due for completion in 2021. The housing project, implemented from 2010, had accumulated liabilities of $ 664 m by the end of 2015.

On 9–12 April, Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa paid a state visit to Cabo Verde, seven years after the last presidential visit from the former colonial power. He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva and six parliamentarians from various Portuguese parties. The official visit started in Fogo Island, where the Portuguese visited a local winery. On the second day, in Praia, Sousa was received by President Fonseca and Prime Minister Correia e Silva. The renegotiation of the special partnership with the eu was among the matters discussed. Later that day, Rebelo de Sousa gave a speech in the National Assembly, where he praised the archipelago’s democracy as an example in the African context. On the third day, in São Vicente, Rebelo de Sousa addressed the local Municipal Assembly and met with students and lecturers at the University of Cabo Verde (Uni-cv). On 22–27 November, President Fonseca made a reciprocal visit to Portugal to further strengthen bilateral relations. Fonseca was received by his counterpart Rebelo de Sousa, visited the headquarters of the cplp and had lunch with Prime Minister António Costa. In addition, he was received by the Portuguese parliament and met with businesspeople in Porto. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Lisbon University.

On 10 May, José Manuel Pinto Teixeira, the eu representative in Cabo Verde, announced that, in addition to the € 55 m national financial programme for 2016–20, the country would for the first time receive $ 10 m from eu Regional Funds for ecowas countries to finance energy, competitiveness and transport projects. A project that received € 2 m in funding was the regional Centre for Renewable Energies and Industrial Maintenance (cermi), implemented in partnership with Luxembourg’s development agency.

On 10 July, Foreign Minister Tavares was in Brussels to present his country’s proposal for an extension of the Special Partnership with the eu signed in 2007. The eu approved the proposal, which included the three new sectors of investment, growth and employment, ocean management and maritime economy, and institutional reforms. On the same day, President Fonseca held talks with the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and the following day was received by the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.

On 19 June in Praia, Foreign Minister Tavares and Luxembourg’s Minister of Cooperation and Humanitarian Action Romain Schneider signed two agreements worth € 48 m for cooperation projects as part of the iv Indicative Cooperation Programme (pic) for 2016–20. The first project was intended to strengthen the management of renewable energy, while the objective of the second was to increase sanitary facilities in 100 schools. The principal areas of Luxembourg’s pic were employment and employability (€ 32 m), water and sanitation (€ 12.3 m) and renewable energy (€ 4.5 m).

On 24 September in Washington dc, Prime Minister Correia e Silva signed a new Status of Forces Agreement (sofa) on military cooperation with the United States that enabled the presence of American troops in the archipelago. The sofa allowed the two countries to strengthen security cooperation in several areas, including maritime security, combatting trafficking, and provision of humanitarian assistance. During his official visit to the United States, the prime minister visited the Massachusetts Military Academy, where he agreed to sign in 2018 an agreement on the training of marines and agents of the coast guard. In addition, he visited the us Naval Academy, the National Democratic Institute and Bridgewater State University, where he sought to strengthen the existing partnership with Uni-cv.

On 16 December, at the 52nd ecowas summit in Abuja (Nigeria), allegedly due to being $ 25 m in arrears with membership contributions, Cabo Verde lost the election for the rotating presidency of the ecowas Commission to Ivory Coast, although it was Cabo Verde’s turn. Fonseca, who intervened six times in favour of his country at the summit, repudiated the election process and attributed the defeat to political arrangements. Foreign Minister Tavares described the decision as a defeat for ecowas, which had disrespected its own statutes. He argued that the debts had not been a justification, since other member states also owed contribution payments of up to $ 400 m.

Socioeconomic Developments

On 3 March, the Binter Cabo Verde airline inaugurated regular flights to Boa Vista, the fourth island after Sal, São Vicente and Santiago served by the Canary company. On 15 April, and 16 and 17 June, the domestic airline inaugurated regular flights to Fogo, Maio and São Nicolau, respectively. On 1 August, Binter received the monopoly on domestic flights when tacv ceased operating inter-island flights. At the same time, the government announced that by June 2018 it would acquire a 49% stake in Binter, of which 30% would be in the form of the commercial concession and 19% would be in return for a payment of $ 1.4 m. At a later stage, the state’s shares would be made available for purchase by private investors. On 3 June, the Azorean airline sata Internacional inaugurated a regular flight from Ponta Delgada via Praia to Boston. The new air connection was considered important both for the Cabo Verdean community in the United States and for the promotion of the country’s tourism.

On 11 May, the government decided to privatise the international operations of tacv , which had accumulated debts of € 110 m. In the process, 260 employees, about half of the personnel, would lose their jobs. On 15 June and 25 July, respectively, the government authorised tacv to borrow $ 3.3 m and $ 2 m to meet urgent financial obligations. On 10 August, the government signed a one-year renewable management contract for tacv Internacional with Loftleidir Icelandic, a subsidiary of Icelandair. Loftleidir announced that it would operate from Amílcar Cabral International Airport in Sal and increase the tacv fleet to three aircraft immediately, to five by the end of 2018 and to 11 within three years. The government expected Loftleidir to develop Cabo Verde as an airport hub linking four continents. The government paid € 100,000 in the first month, and € 75,000 for every other month during the contract period to cover tacv’s operational costs. The government expected to conclude the company’s privatisation by 31 December 2018. In September, tacv cancelled its international flights due to engine damage in its only Boeing aircraft. Only some of the passengers were transferred to other airlines. From 29 September to 5 November, tacv rented two aircraft to transport international passengers. The aircraft damage caused losses of $ 2.5 m. On 12 October, the government authorised tacv to take out another bank loan of $ 16.8 m. On 5 and 7 November, the first two Icelandair aircraft arrived in Praia to operate the tacv flights to the United States, Brazil and Portugal.

On 8 March, the central bank ‘Banco de Cabo Verde’ announced that the ‘Caixa Económica de Cabo Verde’ would absorb the assets of the dissolved Novo Banco. Finance Minister Olavo Correia declared that the dissolution of Novo Banco could cost the treasury a total of $ 20.2 m. Central bank governor João Serra reassured Novo Banco’s 13,200 account holders that their deposits would be transferred in full to the Caixa Económica. Novo Banco had been created in 2010 by the government in partnership with the ‘Banco Português de Gestão’ with a stock capital of $ 3.4 m with the object of providing microcredits to combat poverty, but every year it generated financial losses, despite being recapitalised four times between 2012 and 2017. On 28 April, 34 of the 60 bank employees were dismissed, while the other 26 lost their jobs in May and June.

On 27 November, Prime Minister Correia e Silva declared in the National Assembly that the 2018 national budget of $ 681.7 m was in line with the government’s strategic sustainable development plan focusing on economic growth, connectivity, job creation and local and regional development. The budget increased government staff costs by 9% and the total salary bill by 7.6%. The average public sector salary was expected to rise by 2.5%, while the national minimum monthly salary was increased to cve (escudo) 13,000 ($ 145). The public debt was expected to reach 132.2% of gdp. paicv leader Hopffer Almada fiercely criticised the budget as one of postponed promises that would impoverish the country and increase social inequalities and regional asymmetries. On 12 December, the budget was approved with 34 votes of the MpD and 25 against, 22 from the paicv and three from the ucid.

Tourism continued to expand. According to the annual hotel inventory for 2017, the country had 275 hotel establishments, 42 (18%) more than in 2016. Hotel accommodation capacity was 12,463 rooms and 20,421 beds, an increase of 9.0% and 11.1%, respectively. Santo Antão had 68 establishments (24.7% of the total), followed by Santiago with 50 hotels (18.2%), São Vicente with 45 (16.4%), Fogo with 32 (11.6%) and Sal with 31 (11.3%). In terms of numbers of beds, Sal had 48.2% of the total, followed by Boa Vista (27.6%), Santiago (9.9%) and São Vicente (5.5%). The sector employed 8,825 people, 14% more than in 2016. Over the year, Cabo Verde received 716,775 visitors, 72,246 (11.2%) more than in 2016. The main countries of origin were again the uk (23.6%), Germany (11.2%), Belgium/Netherlands and France (9.7% each), and Portugal (9.5%).