The PS deputy secretary-general opined on Monday that the PSD will “do a monumental somersault” tonight if it presents a proposal to cut the IRS, accusing the Social Democratic leader of inconsistency and “pure political opportunism”.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, João Torres opined that if Luís Montenegro presents a proposal to lower the IRS on Monday night, at the Algarve party in Pontal, it will be an “exercise in contortionist” and a “monumental flip” are.
“What we have seen in recent weeks is a total change and a very significant inconsistency between what the PSD and its leader are defending today and what the PSD has had the opportunity to present to the Portuguese in its election manifesto in the context of the elections of January. elections in 2022,” he stressed.
João Torres pointed out that in that election campaign, the PSD “in an active and militant way” defended the cut of the IRC and proposed a cut of the IRS only in 2025 or 2026, in contrast to the PS, which “prioritised the continuation of the reduction of the IRS”.
“There is another curiosity: one of the great strategists of the PSD electoral program in the 2022 parliamentary elections was precisely the current parliamentary leader of the PSD”, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, one of the right-hand men of the then party leader Rui Rio .
The deputy general secretary of the PS thus accused the PSD of not having defended “structural cuts to the IRS” and of doing so only now “out of sheer political expediency”.
“What is required of the PSD is that it ceases to be a vacuum of ideas and so it would be very useful and very opportune for the PSD to be able to present truly innovative, fair proposals, but which would require funding for important measures to disposable income of families,” he insisted.
When asked if a sharp cut in the IRS would jeopardize funding for these measures, the socialist leader replied: “We’ll see what the PSD defends”.
João Torres stated that “it is with the PS that the Portuguese can count on to lower the IRS”, emphasizing that “this has been the case since the end of 2015”, when the first government led by António Costa took office.
“We are going to continue this path – as already revealed by both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister – of responsible reduction of the IRS to relieve Portuguese families, and in particular the youngest,” he said.
The Socialist Secretary-General also defended that together with the PS governments “the average household income has increased” and “measures such as the start of free visits to nurseries” have been implemented, the childhood guarantee or the “More Housing” program have been implemented.
“In recent months and years, the priorities of the PSD have really changed. The PS has asserted itself as the party that stands up for the increase in income, wages, pensions. (…) The PSD is against increasing, for example, the national minimum wage and has always placed the IRS cut at the bottom of its priority list,” he criticized.
Source: DN
