PSD vice-president Paulo Rangel said on Monday that Portuguese confidence and hope in the future and in institutions “can only be restored with an alternative” and the removal of “the socialists from power”.
“We can have hope and confidence if change comes on March 10 [de 2024]. The confidence that the Portuguese can restore in the institutions obviously flows directly from the possibility of changing socialist governance. These eight years have brought us to an impasse,” said Paulo Rangel at the PSD headquarters in Porto.
And he added: “I think that trust and hope can only be restored if we remove the socialists from power.”
In response to the Prime Minister’s ninth and final Christmas message, Paulo Rangel stated that the PSD, like António Costa, also has confidence in the Portuguese, but that the confidence of the Portuguese in the future “can only be regained with an alternative” .
“With an absolute majority, in the course of a year they have destroyed the credibility of the government and its institutions,” emphasizes Paulo Rangel, who criticizes the Prime Minister’s assessment of the government’s activities, about a month and a half after his resignation as head. of the government due to a judicial investigation and when early parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 10.
“How is it possible to praise the progress made in terms of qualifications when we see the situation that the education system is in, the situation in which our students do not have teachers, in which teachers do not have any incentive, the situation therefore, of the impasse that education has found itself in,” he said.
In addition to education, the PSD vice-president also criticized the correct reports, as they were “made on the basis of the destruction, shutdown and systematic withdrawal of public services”.
For Paulo Rangel, the Prime Minister’s Christmas message was missing “one word” for health workers, but also for the homeless and those facing the housing crisis.
“We know that poverty and the risk of poverty have increased, especially in the last year and a half, when the Socialist government had an absolute majority and was led by António Costa,” he stated.
The PSD vice-president defended that the party did not intend to “completely criticize” António Costa’s socialist policies, stating, however, that the Prime Minister “did not hesitate to make some propaganda”.
IL: António Costa forgot what is wrong with the Portuguese
The chairman of the Liberal Initiative, Rui Rocha, stated that in his Christmas message to the Portuguese, the Prime Minister was “just like himself”, promoting himself and the government, but forgetting what ails the population.
António Costa, in the message broadcast this evening, did not address the essentials, such as issues related to the housing crisis, low incomes, “a middle class absolutely suffocated by low incomes and high taxes”, the degradation of institutions and the degradation of public services, such as healthcare, education, transportation and justice, Rui Rocha said.
“On these points of fundamental importance for the Portuguese, there has not been a single word from António Costa, who limited himself to self-praise, which he has always done for the past eight years,” Rui Rocha told Lusa when asked which reading he had the Prime Minister’s intervention.
The Prime Minister said tonight that he is leaving a better country after eight years of leadership by socialist governments, as Portugal is prepared to face the challenges with a better qualified population and less debt.
According to Rui Rocha, it was “a message that closes a chapter”, and now the fundamental thing is “to convey confidence and hope in another Portugal”.
Regarding the season, the party leader recalled the family gatherings of young emigrants who came to spend Christmas in Portugal, he reminded young people who are also considering emigrating, saying that the Liberal Initiative will provide solutions so that young people in the region can stay in the country and that emigrated country can return.
And on access to healthcare, he also promised a “different vision”, with improved access to healthcare and where people can choose whether they want to access private or public access.
In his wishes for a Merry Christmas, the party chairman also left a “message of hope and confidence in the future and in the transformation of Portugal from March 10” (legislative elections). May the festivities be happy “because we have the opportunity to transform Portugal,” he said.
Ventura says Costa has failed to address the institutional and health crisis
The president of Chega on Monday believed that the Prime Minister’s Christmas message did not address topics such as the crisis in institutions, justice and health care, and accused António Costa of not assuming his responsibilities.
“He is a Prime Minister who, in his last message, manages to miss the two main topics that were important to address today and look to the future: the crisis of the institutions and confidence in justice, which led to the end of his government, and the deeply degraded system in which our health finds itself today,” said André Ventura.
The Chega leader responded to the Prime Minister’s Christmas message, in which António Costa declared that he is leaving a better country after eight years of leadership by socialist governments, as Portugal is prepared to face the challenges with a more qualified population and less debt.
In his response in Lisbon, André Ventura accused the outgoing Prime Minister of a “profound inability to exercise self-responsibility, a critical judgment of one’s own responsibility”.
According to Chega’s leader, António Costa “failed across the board to give the Portuguese the peace the country needed on Christmas Eve”, accusing the PS and the Prime Minister of “living in a parallel reality that is completely was different from that of the Portuguese.” majority of the Portuguese”.
“Let’s hope that in March the Portuguese will be able to give an answer to those who do not want to live or solve their dramas and the dramas of Portugal,” he said.
Source: DN
