The parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, responded this Monday to the criticism of the former President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva, on the government in an opinion article entitled ”Contas sure’, the trap to deceive the Portuguese . “. The former head of state defended that the idea of “correct accounts” is an attempt “by the socialist power to deceive the Portuguese” and to hide “the incompetence and low moral quality of some ministers”.
Socialist Eurico Brilhante Dias’ response came via social media, where he went back in time to commemorate the cuts in salaries, pensions and tax increases implemented before António Costa took charge of the government.
“The weak moral quality. Pretending that we do not know that the argument of the lack of correct accounting was used to cut salaries, pensions, social benefits, implement a huge tax increase and reduce the social state, demoting the public school and the SNS, with historical emigration figures,” wrote the PS faction leader, based on data from Pordata on emigrants. “360 thousand between 2013 and 2015,” he indicated.
Eurico Brilhante Dias criticized that the cuts in salaries and pensions, as well as the increases in taxes in the past, had a justification: “All because the bills were wrong. Anyone who lives on his salary and pension knows well what the ‘trap’ is,” the socialist concluded.
“It is (…) normal that citizens who are not specialists in this field have picked up the idea that ‘correct accounts’ is a primary objective of fiscal policy. However, it was a trap of socialist power for the Portuguese, in which several well-meaning agents from the political and media world fell,” said Cavaco Silva, also former Prime Minister, in an opinion article published in the Público newspaper.
According to the former head of state, the “correct statements” were not only “the trap set up by the Socialist government to, with some success, divert attention (…) from the serious problems of the country”, but also “a attempt to hide the incompetence and low moral quality of some ministers”.
Source: DN
