Last Friday, the chairman of the PSD called for the PS to be punished in the European elections for impoverishing the country. He argued that until then, either the government changes its policies or the country must change its government.
“I hope that at the European elections the Portuguese will give the government the signal that the government needs at this stage, an orange card to say goodbye once and for all to the phase in which it has led Portugal to impoverishment, Portugal has led to impoverishment, the tail end of Europe has brought Portugal to a situation where we have maximum taxes and minimum public services,” said Luís Montenegro.
To achieve this, he continued, “it is necessary to punish the government with a vote for other political forces”.
The Social Democratic leader spoke at the end of a visit to Serra do Montejunto, in Cadaval, one of the municipalities in the western district of the PSD, where he dedicated two days of his ‘Feeling Portugal’ route.
Luís Montenegro recalled that António Costa was Prime Minister for eight years and argued that the policies followed in areas such as education, health and housing “had no effect”.
“This policy is wrong. This policy has given bad results, therefore it is necessary to change the policy. Either the government changes its policy or the country has to change its government. There is no other option,” he insisted.
“The government is in a phase of denial or great confusion because I realize that it can be very frustrating to reach the end of eight years and realize that the policy will produce exactly the opposite of what is being created,” he added to it.
Luís Montenegro accused the government he led of being “very closed in an umbrella around the absolute majority” and not seeing “the essential”, that “today the country is clearly in stagnation, clearly in impoverishment, in a state of denial which is strange. of Doctor António Costa, of the Socialist Party”.
Speaking about what is happening in the field of healthcare, Montenegro said that the problem of access to care can only be solved “by guaranteeing equal treatment to all citizens, that is, by not favoring the rich who have money to go to alternative solutions at the expense of those who do not have this condition and who go to the doors of public hospitals and health centers waiting, waiting, waiting and desperate for an answer.”
“Never have so many Portuguese had to resort to health insurance as now, and never have so many Portuguese been customers of private healthcare equipment. This creates an imbalance between sectors, which is detrimental to those who do not have the means to opt out of the National Health Service’s specific offer”he emphasized.
Regarding the 2024 state budget, Montenegro criticized the Socialist government for “simulating a tax cut”, with expected cuts in the IRS being offset by increases in other taxes, such as the tax on petroleum products or the one-time road tax.
Source: DN
