“The problem with the PSD’s promises, especially in the area of pensions, is that they have a problem of lack of credibility,” accused the candidate for the leadership of the PS today upon arrival at the municipal pavilion of Senhora da Hora, where he participated. during a lunch with supporters.
On Saturday, PSD president Luís Montenegro said he wants to increase the guaranteed minimum income of pensioners to 820 euros by 2028, to ensure his party will not cut “a cent of any pension.”
For Pedro Nuno Santos, the PSD was “the party that abused this group of Portuguese citizens the most, the pensioners”.
“It is important that we do not forget Pedro Passos Coelho [ex-primeiro-ministro] he had said exactly the same thing as Luís Montenegro: that he had done the math and that there would be no need to cut pensions in 2015. But what they did immediately after the elections was to reduce pensions,” said Pedro Nuno Santos.
The former Minister of Infrastructure and Housing and opponent of José Luís Carneiro and Daniel Adrião in the PS elections scheduled for December 15 and 16 also accused the PSD of being “not satisfied with the pension reduction” and trying to “make this reduction permanent” to make”.
“They couldn’t do it, they were stopped by the Constitutional Court,” he recalled, adding that the PSD also wanted to make “an additional cut of another 600 million euros,” blocked by the PS government.
Pedro Nuno Santos accused Luís Montenegro of “reaching the same number as Passos Coelho in 2011”, as he considered it “very important for the PSD to present these bills” in order to “have a debate on the feasibility of the proposal”.
The PS leadership candidate also found it ridiculous that the PSD presented a proposal to equate the minimum pension with the national minimum wage, while they “never wanted to increase it”.
“The worst thing that could happen to retirees would be to increase pensions and then go back later,” he thought.
Speaking to an audience of around 1,300 people that filled the pavilion in Senhora da Hora, Pedro Nuno Santos added that “the PSD must say something more” about “its strategy for social security and the public pension system”.
“What they have always defended over the years was transferring part of our pensions to the financial markets and privatizing part of our pensions,” accused Pedro Nuno Santos.
The lunch was attended by the President of the Matosinhos Municipal Council and President of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), Luísa Salgueiro, the President of the Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP) and the PS/Porto District, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, the Minister of Health Manuel Pizarro and the President of the Economic and Social Council, Francisco Assis.
Pedro Nuno Santo also received the support of the Secretaries of State for Youth and Sports, João Paulo Correia, and of Planning, Eduardo Pinheiro, and other mayors in the region, such as Marco Martins (Gondomar), Alberto Costa (Santo Tirso), among others .
Source: DN
