The former president of the republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, defended this Friday that Prime Minister António Costa and the government must get out of “the situation of immobility” to implement decisive reforms and put the Portuguese economy on the path of sustainable growth.
“(…) It is essential that opposition parties, civil society institutions and the media help the Prime Minister and the Government to break through the situation of immobility and find a way that will allow Portugal to return within 10 years to 15th position in terms of development among the 27 countries of the European Union where it was in 2002, after falling to 21st place in recent years,” said Cavaco Silva, in an opinion article in the newspaper Público, published this Friday.
The former head of state recalled that he had estimated in April that “after six months of the government’s life with an absolute majority of the PS, there may already have been objective information that would allow an assessment of its political courage to carry out the decisive reforms.” to put the Portuguese economy on a path of sustainable growth superior to that of our competitors’ European Union countries”.
“This is essential for Portugal to cease to be a country with minimum wages, with an impoverished middle class, old-age pensions that do not allow for a dignified life and poor public health and education services,” he stressed.
Cavaco Silva stressed that the government “has been lavishly described in the media as a disjointed and disoriented set of exhausted ministers, with no direction, without ambition and reformist will, a government adrift in sight”.
After six months of government with an absolute majority of António Costa, the former president of the republic also quoted economist Ricardo Reis as saying that the executive “despite all the promises it goes ahead without announcing a real reform that aims to boost the economy.” “.
“The situation is all the more worrying when there are studies on the reforms to be implemented to put the country on the path of economic growth and improvement of the living standards of the Portuguese, promoted by credible institutions such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Francisco Manuel dos Santos en Sedes,” Cavaco Silva warned.
For the former president, it is “in the collective interest to see an urgent change in the attitude of the PS government, as it is expected to remain in office until 2026”.
As for the Prime Minister, the Social Democrat defended that António Costa should “lead the general policy of the executive and coordinate, guide and stimulate the action of the ministers in order to achieve the defined objectives and ensure policy coherence”.
Controversy with Pedro Nuno Santos. “He came out strengthened as a candidate for the succession of the prime minister as leader of the PS”
However, Cavaco Silva continues in the article published in Público: “There are now concerns that the politically reprehensible behavior of some members of the government, together with the chaos in the functioning of the National Health Service, is affecting the lives of the executive power, impede the actions of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, and reinforce their tendency to indolence”.
“On the one hand, the seriousness of the political insult to the Minister of Infrastructure [Pedro Nuno Santos] to the Prime Minister on the question of the new Lisbon airport. Anyone who has held this position knows that the Prime Minister could not help dismissing the Minister. By failing to do so, it showed a lack of political strength – the reason is still unknown – which cast doubt on its authority while undermining the credibility of the Council of Ministers and the respect for the collegiality that should characterize it. . The minister, in turn, emerged unequivocally strengthened as a candidate for the succession of the prime minister as leader of the PS,” the former head of state analyzed.
Cavaco Silva also denounced a “second politically reprehensible behavior” starring the Minister of Agriculture.
“When faced with criticism from the Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal (CAP) about the lack of public support in light of the extreme drought that hit the country, she stated publicly: ‘It is better to ask why, during the election campaign, CAP advised voters not to vote for the PS,” said Cavaco Silva.
“The minister’s response to the criticism of the CAP is therefore particularly serious and dangerous for what it may reveal of arbitrariness and abuse of power by the government and consequently negative for the definition and implementation of a reform strategy essential for economic growth and productivity.”added the former prime minister and president of the republic.
Chip Silva Calls on opposition parties to “present proposals in line with that objective and intensive government scrutiny, by denouncing errors, omissions, lies and the PS practice to veto ministers’ call for parliamentary committees” set.
But also to civil society institutions, “by demonstrating the consequences for the future of the country of failing to adopt ambitious structural reform policies and convincing the government to change course” and to the media,” through an inscrutable examination of government everyday life, in a framework of truth and independence from the political power that should characterize it”.
Source: DN
