The president of the PSD promised on Tuesday to give “every Portuguese with a pension status” a “minimum income of 820 euros” by 2028, making a distinction in pension income and maintaining the conditions for accessing the Solidarity Supplement for the elderly.
At the entrance to the presentation of the book ‘Elements of constitutional politics’ by Vice President Paulo Rangel, Luís Montenegro made himself available to “explain by repeating what he said” to the PSD Congress, when he promised that, if he becomes Prime Minister, he will increase the reference value of the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly (CSI) to 820 euros at the end of the next parliamentary term.
The PSD president rejected any mistake or trick, given the criticism leveled at him, especially by candidates for the PS leadership, who challenged him to further clarify who the measure applied to.
“I can explain, I repeat what I said, I hope everyone has the honesty to recognize it,” he said, reiterating that the PSD, if it becomes a government, will update all pensions “at least” according to the formula provided for. the law and will not cut pensions one cent.
Third, he added, the PSD has committed to changing the CSI reference value so that it reaches the reference value of 820 euros in 2028 (currently it is 488 and next year it will be 530 euros).
When asked whether there was any confusion between the increase in pensions and the increase in the CSI, he replied in the negative and said that he always talked about income.
“What I assure every Portuguese who is ready to retire is this: in 2028 they will have a minimum income of 820 euros,” he reiterated.
“There is no confusion. I don’t want to teach Portuguese to anyone. There are many people who talk about what they don’t know, especially the political leaders who want to run for leadership of the government.” he added.
Faced with the fact that the CSI is not generalized but subject to a means test, Montenegro responded that the PSD will continue to apply it, although it admits that it could change some requirements “in the future”.
“Imagine a person with a pension of 300 euros, but who has a building with a rent of 10,000 euros. Do the Portuguese think he should receive the same treatment as the other person? Certainly not,” he said.
He therefore emphasized that “the concept is not the pension, but the person’s income”.
“A guaranteed minimum income means that someone is guaranteed an income of 820 euros, I cannot explain this otherwise. Anyone with an income of 500 euros will receive a CSI of 320, anyone with 400 will receive 420, anyone with 600 will receive 220,” he explained.
Montenegro also reiterated another objective, which he said went unnoticed in Congress, namely “to coincide in a second legislative term this reference value of the CSI with that of the updated minimum wage.”
Regarding the estimated cost of this measure, the PSD leader said that “if it were like this now, it would not be more than double” the current cost, which is about 300 million euros.
“By increasing the reference value, we will of course extend the measure to more people,” he said.
Montenegro refused to consider the measure as electoral, countering that “it is a measure of social justice and social solidarity”, leaving a backlash for the Prime Minister, António Costa.
“For those who usually go to pharmacies, you should know what I’m talking about,” he joked.
Source: DN
