Unlike the various parties that have already announced their vote against the 2024 state budget (OE2024), the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, defended this Wednesday that the “strategy” followed by the government to draw up the document , , “perhaps the only possible”, taking into account the instability of the international situation, now aggravated by two wars.
“It’s clear that people, with what they’ve suffered, what they’ve suffered in inflation, with what they’ve suffered in their economic situation, not just now but over the last few years, some expected more and some wanted more. [do OE2024]. That’s why I understand what’s going through people’s minds.”, the head of state said during an initiative at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon. Marcelo defended that “the government preferred to play it safe and be cautious” because the state “manages a situation that does not know whether it will last long or short”, recalling the war in Ukraine, which now, with the conflict between Israel and Hamas creates “a sense of instability.” When asked whether the budgetary strategy followed by the government is the most correct, the President emphasized that OE2024 means “more bold steps in the field of IRS levels, but also in the defense field. That is to say, be careful not to take too many risks”. According to Marcelo, “the government is counting on a huge tax burden for next year. It is counting on large tax revenues.” For this reason, the Head of State stated, emphasizing that no one knows whether or not there will be more tax revenues, “it is clearly a budget that injects money, goes further than the previous one, but is always one foot behind due to the international situation.” When asked whether the government could have gone further, as the left asks, or whether it could have levied less taxes, as the right argues, Marcelo believed that this would be a risk, given the uncertainty of economic growth in Europe, “not so much to achieve a budget balance – this will be maintained – but continue to inject money into different economic and social sectors.”
“Hideout”
In line with Marcelo, Prime Minister António Costa stated that the aim of OE2024 is to protect Portugal from external disruptions. “We know very well what happens when debt levels start to rise and the pressures countries are exposed to. It is essential that we place ourselves in a safe haven when faced with external disruptions.”defended the head of the government.
Close to this perspective, the Minister of Economy, António Costa Silva, classified OE2024 as “a sensible budget that ensures fiscal consolidation while restoring incomes to families and individuals”, while ensuring that it “follows responses and dialogues” and that it will make its position on the matter known “in due course”.
The OE2024 proposal that the government submitted to the Assembly of the Republic on Tuesday foresees growth of the Portuguese economy from 1.8% to 2.2% this year, but lowers forecasts for 2024 from 2% to 1.5 %.
On the other hand, regarding the money raised through tax collection, the government predicts an increase of 4.8% in 2024, reaching an unprecedented amount of 60.13 billion euros, according to the OE2024 report (in 2023 the tax revenues of the state registered in the document amounts to 57.38 billion euros).
Votes against and uncertain
On the day the OE2024 proposal was presented by the government to parliament, the president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, accused the document of being “only an appearance”, but still without indicating the voting intention. “It is, again, a pipi budget, a budget that looks good, very presented, but that is only an appearance, it is very small, it looks like it is doing it, but it is not, it presents objectives, it presents ideas, but then nothing happens”also classifying the document as a “package and demagoguery” that is “embellished with selective leaks of information to the newspapers.”
Without announcing the direction of the vote on OE2024, and sending a decision to a moment after an analysis, the president of Chega, André Ventura, stated on the day of the submission of the government proposal that “there are patches, some electoralism and a lot of propaganda in this state budget, with several announcements that are factually incorrect.”
Shortly after the presentation of the OE by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, João Cotrim de Figueiredo, deputy of the Liberal Initiative, announced that the party would vote against the government’s proposal because it entailed a “huge increase in indirect taxes”.
Also without any doubts about how the party will pronounce on OE2024, the coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda, Mariana Mortágua, voted against, taking into account the ‘tricks’, which do not guarantee the recovery of the purchasing power of the Portuguese. “It is because it fails the National Health Service, it is because it fails public schools and all public services and it is because it does not solve the biggest crisis we face, which is the housing crisis, that the Left Blok will vote against the proposal. State budget for 2024″.
The same assurance was conveyed by the PCP parliamentary leader, Paula Santos. “It is a proposal that deserves and will deserve the PCP’s struggle”, the communist delegate declared, guaranteeing that the party’s mood “can only be in the opposite direction.” With LUSA
Source: DN
