WINNING the vote of the cooks and waiters dishing out succulent grilled fish and spicy chicken at Portugal’s restaurants could make all the difference in the country’s tight Oct. 4 election.

    The restaurant sector is a huge provider of jobs in this food-worshipping European nation. It was also among the hardest hit by austerity imposed by center premier Pedro Passos Coelho as part of efforts to shake off the sovereign debt crisis that also afflicted Spain, Greece and Cyprus.

    Thousands of eateries went broke amid the largest tax hikes in living memory as many recession-hit Portuguese were forced to do the unthinkable and forego eating meals out.

    So with opposition Socialists pledging to reverse the tax hikes, the mood behind the serving hatch will be a key test of whether Portuguese are ready to complete the austerity cure.

    “The VAT increase was the last straw for many businesses,” Jorge Costa, who runs the traditional “Leitaria Anunciada” restaurant in central Lisbon, said of a 2012 hike in value-added sales tax to 23 percent from 13 percent which Passos Coelho’s government said was needed to plug a soaring budget deficit.

    “From one moment to the next we were without clients.”

    In a painful overhaul of business practices, Costa scraped through the crisis by firing three of his five staff — leaving just himself and his cook — and adapting his menus to put the emphasis more on quality.

    Others were also downsizing. The result was the loss of some 30,000 restaurant jobs, a 20 percent fall in sales between 2008 and 2013 and the closure of 10,000 restaurants — just under 12 percent of the country’s total of 74,660 establishments.

    That mirrored the fate of the wider economy, which shrank 8 percent over the same period while unemployment leapt to around 12 percent now from under 8 percent in 2008. National debt has doubled to hit 130 percent of output last year.

    With an economic recovery finally taking root in 2014 and accelerating now, Passos Coelho wants to convince voters that a vote for him is a bet on stability that will allow investment to take off and generate more growth. Debt is due to fall to a still colossal 125 percent of output by the end of the year.

    But with polls showing Pedro Passos Coelho’s coalition stuck in a dead heat with his Socialist challenger Antonio Costa, the jury is still clearly out.

    “The sector went through a perfect storm,” said Jose-Manuel Esteves, director-general of the AHRESP hotel and restaurant lobby group, describing Passos Coelho’s refusal to cut taxes if re-elected as an “affront and provocation” to restaurateurs.

    Passos Coelho argues the tax revenues will help reduce Portugal’s deficit and national debt pile, thus reassuring investors. But Esteves for one says that stability alone is not enough and endorses the platform of quickly cutting VAT for restaurants back down to 13 percent.

    That will appeal to many others in a sector which still employs about 211,200, one of the biggest job sectors in Portugal. (SD-Agencies)