The Prime Minister believed on Tuesday that Portugal recorded the largest decline in the risk of poverty and argued that the 2024 budget proposal strengthens this strategy through increases in the minimum wage and child benefits.
These views were broadcast by António Costa on his personal account on the social network X (formerly Twitter) on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which will take place next Tuesday.
“After Portugal recorded the largest reduction in the risk of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union in 2022, placing it below the European average, we are not satisfied and want to go even further. That is why we recently published the Plan of Action of the National Strategy to Combat Poverty 2022-2025,” wrote the leader of the executive branch.
According to the Prime Minister, the 2024 Budget proposal “also provides a relevant impetus” to this strategy, “through measures such as the increase of the national minimum wage, the strengthening of child benefits and the expansion of free daycare centers.”
The action plan for the period 2022-2025 of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy was approved by the Council of Ministers on Thursday.
According to the government, this plan is “a fundamental planning tool” and sets six lines of action and fourteen strategic objectives.
The National Strategy to Combat Poverty 2021-2030, adopted at the end of 2021, aims, among other things, to reduce the population living in poverty to 10% by the end of the decade.
Also this Tuesday, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, warned of the need for new approaches and models of action in the fight against poverty, claiming that the country cannot accept almost two million poor people.
“On this October day, a message remains that is repeated every year: that almost two million Portuguese are poor, and this is a reality that we cannot accept,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in a message on the occasion of the International Day . for the eradication of poverty.
Source: DN
