It was the first fortnightly parliamentary debate with the Prime Minister after a gap of three years and three months; but it could also have been the first day of the general debate on next year’s state budget (OE2024) – and it was.
The opposition put forward its main arguments to criticize the government proposal; and the head of the government practiced the arguments with which he responded to these criticisms. The play of both parties was visible to each other and if anyone wants to surprise anyone now, new arguments will have to be devised when the general debate on OE2024 actually takes place at the end of this month.
Faced with the right, António Costa used the expected weapons and boasted of the flags he had won in the fiscal field, namely the PSD, with the reduction of the IRS by about 1.4 billion euros in 2024.
In fact, he made a point of explaining that in his opinion the right was ‘stunned’ and ‘didn’t know what to say’ (‘they’ve already said a little bit of everything: that the budget was pipi, well presented and cute; they already said I’m a Portuguese communist; and the Liberal Initiative even said I had three hands”).
“A married couple with two children, each with a gross income of 1,500 per month, will pay 874 euros less to the tax authorities in 2024 than today. But what hurts the PSD even more is that, if the rule that was in force on the last day of his life, Government, in 2015 he would pay an extra 2,404 euros.”
And then he explained in detail his thesis on the ‘successive bankruptcy’ of the three ‘demarcation lines’ that the right has attempted since 2015 in the face of socialist governance. For example, it was argued that “the PS did not know how to manage the public accounts,” but “a tragedy of tragedies for the right, the truth is that the public accounts are becoming more and more balanced”; it was also said that the attractiveness of foreign investment would be at stake and that the markets had no confidence in the PS governments, but “the truth is that the debt ratio is not only lower than that of Greece and Italy, but also compared to Spain, France and Belgium” and in addition, “Portugal broke records every year in terms of business investment and attracting foreign direct investment”; and finally the ‘narrative’ that the socialists would be friends ‘of the big state’ and that they would ‘undermine’ the taxpayers, but ‘in fact we strengthened investments in the SNS and education, but this did not happen at least’. the cost of raising taxes for the Portuguese. It happened despite the reduction in taxes for the Portuguese, in particular the IRS. In summary: “A couple with two children, each with an income of 1500 gross per month, will pay 874 euros less to the tax authorities in 2024 than today. But what hurts the PSD even more is that if the rule that was in force on the last day of his government, in 2015, were applied to this couple, they would pay an additional 2,404 euros.”
Moreover, Costa was attacked where he expected: during the misery that the SNS experienced; in the way the government was caught off guard by the hyperinflationary housing boom; in increasing the tax burden (“you give a little with one hand and take a lot more with the other. It reduces the IRS by 1.3 billion euros, good thing – he copied the PSD proposal, but he poorly copied -, but on the other hand, this reduction will result in an increase of 2.7 billion euros in indirect taxes,” said Miranda Sarmento, parliamentary leader of the PSD); and the internal contradictions within the government regarding the privatization of TAP.
Here, with regard to TAP, the head of the government admitted that he had expressed himself “wrong” when he said that the privatization was promised to the EU so that it could approve the government’s 3.2 billion euros support plan for the company . that the state will be able to retain “strategic control” over the company during privatization, even if only with a 10% share, all depending on who buys it and the social pact that is established.
Regarding healthcare, he explained figures showing substantial increases (since 2015, the last year of Passos Coelho’s government) in care and operations, using the path to ensure that the “biggest reform ‘ that was once implemented in the SNS is ongoing. all users advise to use more Healthline 24 instead of going to health centers early in the morning to make appointments, denying ever saying the emergency room problem was “the fault of the Portuguese”.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by António Costa PM (@antoniocostapm)
And at the end, in response to Rui Tavares of Livre – the only deputy in the entire debate who did not focus his intervention on OE2024 – he announced that in today’s Council of Ministers the government will approve a decree law providing for the application of unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence.
This ended the first round of the OE2024 parliamentary debate. There’s more on the 30th.
Source: DN
