Former Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos again ruled out any hypothesis of governance agreements or parliamentary influence with the PSD if he were elected general secretary of the PS, pointing the party led by Luís Montenegro to a “path of radicalization.” it was concerned about competition with Chega for right-wing voters”.
“The PSD has presented in recent days, at the Congress and in the Assembly of the Republic, a radicalized, extreme, hyperbolic and pamphleteering language, which in many situations surpasses its non-assumed partner in Parliament,” said Pedro Nuno Santos during the PSD meeting. national headquarters of the PS, in Largo do Rato, in Lisbon, after submitting the strategic motion for his candidacy to succeed António Costa.
For the candidate for the socialist leadership, who once again presented himself as the one best positioned to “mobilize the majority of the Portuguese people for a winning and mobilizing project”, any chance of a central bloc with the PSD is excluded. . “Portuguese democracy needs escape valves, which implies that both parties are not tied to the same government. This would only benefit the far-right party. And we don’t participate in that. Moreover, there are significant differences in economic and economic terms. social policy”, he justified, emphasizing the distances from José Luís Carneiro, whom he did not recognize as the main opponent in the internal dispute, as he attributed this status to the PSD.
Despite this, the former Minister of Infrastructure referred to the refusal to repeat the apparatus defended by José Luís Carneiro, saying that “if there is a candidacy that does not close any doors, neither to the left nor to the center, this is from me”. Even though it admits with “the center-right party” called PSD that “regime agreements have been concluded on matters on which there must be broad consensus, on sovereignty and foreign policy, where decades-old agreements exist that must be preserved to stay”.
About two hours after the Minister of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, described himself as the candidate for the socialist leadership most able to reach consensus after the parliamentary elections on March 10, 2024, Pedro Nuno Santos countered that “the political debate should not be fed’. reduced to a false dichotomy between radicalism and moderation, but rather who has the ability to mobilize the Portuguese people to solve the country’s problems, and we think the one who has that is our candidacy and the PS.”
Pedro Nuno Santos questioned a poll that identified José Luís Carneiro as the candidate for PS secretary general – to be chosen by party members in direct elections on December 15 and 16 – that the Portuguese want to see as prime minister. “If we look at the electorate that gave an absolute majority to the PS in 2022, I am the preferred candidate. If we add the electorate of PSD, Chega and IL, the result is different, but that is understandable. PS leaders and they do not vote for PS leaders,” he said, flanked by former minister Alexandra Leitão, coordinator of his strategy motion, and by Luísa Salgueiro, president of the Chamber of Matosinhos.
Motion wants a stronger economy
Pedro Nuno Santos pointed out that it is necessary to reform the social state to “continue to respond to the aspirations of our people in the areas of health and housing”, but did not forget sustainable mobility and the commitment to a better qualified public administration.
He emphasized the “clear commitment to improving wages”, which implies not only agreement between companies and workers, but also the existence of an economy focused on sectors that create more added value.
And after agreeing with José Luís Carneiro in a referendum on regionalization, he condemned Luís Montenegro for opposing it, from a “centralist perspective that the PSD has always had and that harms the harmonious development of the national territory.”
The candidate also agreed on the issue of gradually restoring the service time of civil servants, which had been frozen by the imposition of the Troika. Like Social Democratic leader Luís Montenegro, Pedro Nuno Santos promised a gradual replacement.
Source: DN
