For António Costa, “the country is only healthy if the Portuguese are doing well”. That was the strong idea of the opening speech of the parliamentary days of the PS, tonight, in Funchal. According to the general secretary of the PS, the growth of the post-pandemic economy was the result of the right employment policies and innovation policies, as well as the reduction of VAT to zero or the interim increase for pensioners.
“Although we were facing a pandemic, almost 700,000 people in Portugal have already left the risk of poverty (…) It was the result of a policy that understood that it increased the minimum wage. Employment,” explains Costa the choice from the Region to receive the PS rides.
António Costa showed the results of his administration, marked, he said, by two years of the covid-19 pandemic and an inflationary crisis, and gave the example of the average salary, which he says has increased by 26% in Portugal since the PS is in power in 2016 and promises that the trajectory will “continue”. The PS leader and prime minister admitted that the government may not be able to “do everything”, nor “reach everyone”, but complained that it had met the IRS target, for example by presenting unemployment figures.
Now the priority remains “employment, employment, employment”, not to mention the plans to invest in health, with five new hospitals, including one in Madeira.
He then saluted the mayors in Madeira who “know how to show” how to manage the socialists: “We know very well that elections in Madeira are always difficult, we know that Madeirans do not always like the PS, but you can make sure the PS loves the Madeirans.”
Earlier, the PS leader accused the opposition of just wanting to ‘discuss’ true divers, fallen and fallen” and the PSD to give the saying unsaid in the pledge to lower the IRS. On a rally note, at a pre-campaign dinner of the PS Madeira, before the regional elections in the archipelago, Costa accused PSD and the rest of the opposition to “avoid the debate on the fundamental problems of the country” and “present alternatives” to the PS. “The opposition just wants to talk good diverscases and cases,” said the socialist leader and prime minister, stating that it is the PS that comes up with solutions and reforms.
In an autonomous region governed by the right, by a PSD/CDS-PP government, António Costa also criticized the Social Democrats for saying “what is said for what is not said” and now defends the cut of the IRS when , two years ago , Rui Rio was leader of the party, the option was the write-off of the IRC, giving the IRS pause “if the accounts are in order”, “by 2025 or 2026”.
“In 2023 alone, the IRS payable by families will drop nearly as much as the 800 million the PSD promised to download there for 2025 and 2026,” he also said. According to Costa, the Social Democrats can even “take what has been said for unsaid”, but the economic “guru” of Rui Rio, of the “bad PSD”, is the same as that of Luís Montenegro and of the “good PSD”. PSD”. [o economista e líder parlamentar Miranda Sarmento].
The PS started today its PS parliamentary days, which run until Tuesday and are intended to prepare for the debate on the state of the country on July 19 and the regional elections in Madeira in September or October. In addition to António Costa, the Ministers of the Economy, António Costa Silva, of Labor and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, and Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, as well as the former Secretary General of UGT Carlos Silva will be present. .
Source: DN
