Socialist Secretary General candidate Pedro Nuno Santos accused the PSD on Saturday of not being “reliable”, with Chega as an “undisputed ally”, and urged Luís Montenegro to stop “deceiving the Portuguese “.
“What the PSD shows us today is that it is not reliable (…) They have made an agreement [nos Açores] and they will make another deal if they need it [Chega] to govern. It is not worth continuing to mislead the Portuguese people. It’s not a small problem. It is a relevant issue,” said Pedro Nuno Santos during a meeting with Socialist Party (PS) activists in Viana do Castelo.
In the speech he delivered in the hall of the Escola Superior de Ciências Empresariais (ESTG), full of activists, the former Minister of Infrastructure and Housing said that on Friday the country could see “who Chega is, with whom they [PSD] they want to be there.”
“We had in Portugal the leaders of the far-right parties in Europe. That is what Chega represents, that humble ally of the PSD,” he emphasized.
During the speech, which lasted more than 20 minutes, preceded by interventions by the President of the PS District Federation and President of the Chamber of Paredes de Coura, Vítor Paulo Pereira and the Minister of Housing, Marina Gonçalves, Pedro Nuno Santos referred several times to Chega as an ‘undisputed partner’ of the PSD.
“We are fighting Chega, just like we are fighting the PSD. We will always fight because we defend a democracy, a country where everyone is respected. A whole Portugal, a Portugal of the future, a Portugal with development,” he emphasized.
The candidate for the position of Secretary General of the PS stated that the PSD “has not learned anything in the past eight years” about the governance of the PS, and “will not do anything differently”.
“Luís Montenegro, who, it must be said, Pedro Passos Coelho, did not recognize at the time the necessary authority to join the government, was, despite everything, parliamentary leader who supported that government,” he noted.
For Pedro Nuno Santos, the PSD showed during the party’s 41st Congress in Almada “that if they ever come back to power, the strategy will be the same,” of “pain and suffering for the Portuguese people.
During the speech, the former Minister of Infrastructure and Housing expressed “very pride” in the eight years of PS administration, which he described as “a good memory” for the Portuguese.
He admitted that the country is “still far from healthy” and defined the “major objectives” of his candidacy as “being able to increase salaries, protect the social state and develop the economy.”
Pedro Nuno Santos says Montenegro attacked government with “good memory”
The candidate for PSD Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos also criticized the speech of the PSD leader Luís Montenegro, arguing that the ‘device’ was “a solution of the government that is a good memory for the Portuguese”.
“I was waiting to hear the leader of the PSD speak about the country, with the Portuguese, but all I saw was an intervention full of complaints, criticism, attacks, language, even very extreme,” Pedro Nuno Santos told journalists Viana do Castelo, where he met Socialist Party (PS) activists.
According to the former Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Luís Montenegro’s speech at the opening of the 41st PSD Congress in Almada revealed that the social democratic leader “has not learned much in the past eight years”.
“He attacked a government solution that is a good memory for the Portuguese, unlike another government of which he was head of parliament and which is a bad memory for the Portuguese,” added Pedro Nuno Santos, referring to the executive power. led by Pedro Passos Coelho.
In the opening speech of the 41st Congress in Almada, Social Democratic leader Pedro Nuno Santos – who, if he wins the internal Socialist elections, will lead the party in the March parliamentary elections – associated with former Prime Minister Vasco Gonçalves, close to the PCP, and head of Provisional Governments II, III, IV and V.
For Montenegro, ‘geringonça’ was ‘a modern version’ of ‘gonçalvism’, which has ‘its most fanatical defender’ in the former ruler.
For the socialist leadership candidate, Montenegro’s speech was “extreme and pamphleteering, very different from someone who wants to lead the country” as it did not propose any solutions.
Pedro Nuno Santos also ruled out any relationship with Chega, saying that “it is not a problem with the Socialist Party”.
“There is no Portuguese citizen who thinks there is a risk of the Socialist Party coming to terms with Chega. This is a hot potato for the leader of the PSD, it is not a problem for the Socialist Party,” he stressed.
Regarding the comments that push him to the left and to a more extreme position, against a more moderate and centrist position of his internal opponent, José Luís Carneiro, Pedro Nuno Santos pointed out that “the political debate that interests Portugal is not a political debate. about radicalism or moderation,” but rather “about solving the country’s problems.”
“This is the biggest challenge we have. We continue to see various politicians using tags, labels, cataloging politicians and opponents. That is not what the Portuguese expect from us, they expect from us to see if we have the capacity, the project, to mobilize them and build a decent country where we can live better. That is the challenge we have,” he stressed.
Source: DN
