The Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, this Monday highlighted the differences between the PS government and the opposition parties, as he believed that the reduction of the budget deficit and debt overcame the “dogmas” of the right and left.
In the closing speech of the debate on the 2024 state budget (OE2024), which lasted about 25 minutes and in which he was applauded several times, Fernando Medina opened the door to the election campaign period, marking the difference between the political fields of the right and the left .
He focused on right-wing parties and accused them of failing because they argued that these results could only be achieved by shrinking the welfare state. The results obtained, he said, also made it possible to overcome the dogmas of the left “which often oppose budget discipline.”
In an intervention in which he contrasted the socialist government with the proposals of the largest opposition party – in the areas of social security, health care, education or pensions – Fernando Medina now also accused the PSD of concealing ‘out of electoral opportunism’ the fact that the tax cuts that he defends should be financed by cuts to the welfare state.
“In the socialist ideology, the social state occupies a central place,” he said, noting that he often walked this path alone and that it was built “against the will of the right,” which he accused of seeking to improve health care to “privatize”. education and social security.
“Over the past eight years we have undone the heavy burden of austerity that the right left us,” Fernando Medina said in the intervention that preceded the final global vote on the budget, which was only made possible by the vote before the budget. PS and the abstention of Livre and PAN – a vote that respected general norms.
Source: DN
