Today on Jornal da Noite
A post on social media states that Portugal, with around 10 million inhabitants, had 70 members in António Costa’s government, suggesting that countries with more populations have fewer rulers, some even half as many. Will it be true? SIC Verifies. This and many other fact-checks, not to be missed, today in Jornal da Noite.
In a publication on X (formerly Twitter) there is a comparison between Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and the United States.
On the one hand, Portugal, with around 10 million inhabitants, already had 70 members in the Government; on the other, countries with 50 million, 70 million and even almost 350 million inhabitants reach count on half or less than half of the rulers.
Despite being recent, o tweet it refers to old governments, as confirmed by seeing the protagonists. In addition to referring to a Government of António Costa from 2019, also refers to a Government in which Angela Merkel was still German Chancellor, a position she left in 2021.
Regarding Spain, in January 2020, the structure of the left-wing coalition Executive was composed by the Prime Minister, e therefore 51 members of Government. Currently, the number of ministers remains the same (23 if you include Pedro Sánchez), but the number of secretaries of state has increased to 35. Total: . The population is around .
France had Édouard Philippe as prime minister in 2020, 16 ministers and 21 ministers of state, the equivalent of secretaries of state. Adding it all together 38 rulers in the same period of Costa’s ‘fat’ government. At the moment, they are . Now the population approaches the .
In the USA, during the third year of Donald Trump’s first term, the The structure of the US Cabinet consisted of 24 members, including ministers and secretaries, this being the same again with Trump in power. THE population currently stands at 342 million inhabitants.
It is important to take into account that the government structure varies from country to country. In federal systems, such as the German one, it is important to remember that . That’s why, Comparing the total number of rulers between countries without considering these differences can lead to wrong conclusions.
SIC verifies that it is…
A publication is based on real datasuch as the fact that Portugal had a Government led by António Costa with around 70 members, but presents them in a potentially misleading way. On the one hand, uses examples of periods longer than five yearson the other, compares countries with different political systems.
