The “precious possession” for the populations, when they look to their rulers, “is security” and that security “results from stability.” António Costa went to the “Socialist Academy” taking place tonight in Évora to make his comeback, taking the opportunity to insist on the idea that he must have the conditions to bring the legislature to the end because that’s the ‘contract’. that exists in the population: “From x to x times people vote and seal a contract: there is a program that must be fulfilled and evaluated at the end whether or not it has been fulfilled,” he said, noting that, since “it is clear that there is a continuous evaluation, no, there is only one final exam”, it is the duty of politicians “to fulfill and enforce the obligations” that they celebrate with the population.
Costa avoided getting into the game with the demands made by the PSD since the Festa do Pontal, so the IRS charged this year has already been lowered. “We are not going to invent anything,” he said, stating that the Portuguese have paid two million euros less in this tax since 2015 and that “in the coming years” the already set path will lead to cuts of another two billion euros.
In the end, however, he indirectly responded to social democratic demands by announcing that the Council of Ministers will today approve the extension until the end of zero VAT (applicable to food products).
He also announced that the government’s plenary will soon approve a “very important reform” related to creating connections between local health units and hospital centers. And even though passes for people under 23 will be free from January 2024
The socialist leader also spoke about the housing issue (“suddenly everyone is talking about the housing crisis”). According to him, what is happening is that “the invisible hand of the market is not solving the problems” created by the liberalization of rents. However, acknowledging that he has not fulfilled his promise to build 26,000 new homes by 2024, he assured that “17,000 are already moving”, that is, “going into the ground”.
Earlier he had stated that the current crisis in the sector was already foreseeable and that the government therefore succeeded in negotiating in Brussels an amount of 2.7 million euros, which would be applied in this sector through the PRR. “It is true that the 26,000 houses are not finished yet, but if we had not started, they would never have been under construction,” he said.
Costa also stressed the importance of the policy of “certain accounts” and the reduction of the government deficit. In his view, if there had not been a surplus in 2019, the government would not have been able to respond in 2020 and in the years following the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
At the same time, he tried to reinforce the idea of ”resistance” and “resilience” in his policies and his way of being in politics.
As an example, he chose the restoration of the northern bank of the Trancão River, in the municipality of Loures, which is now taking place through the organization of World Youth Day.
As he said, this rehabilitation, which has now given Loures a new riverfront, was proposed by him thirty years ago when he was a PS candidate for that municipality (after losing). But now the time has come: “I haven’t given up an idea in thirty years.”
Source: DN
