It is true that no one talked about the next presidential election (2026), the truth is that Pedro Passos Coelho, the personality most recently mentioned as the one who had everything to lead this fight, on the right side of the PS, also, next Wednesday in the House of Representatives the most absentee of the first day of the OE2023 debate.
First through the Prime Minister himself, António Costa, and then through the intervention of successive PS deputies, the socialists made a deep commitment to present the confrontation as a confrontation between the “correct bills” of the Costa governments and the “austerity by the government of Pedro Passos Coelho (2011-2015).
“During my reign, we grew more than in the reign of the right. In every period of the PS we grew more than in any period of right-wing government: in the governments of António Guterres we grew more than in the governments of Cavaco Silva, in the In the governments of José Sócrates, we grew more than in the governments of Durão Barroso and Passos Coelho and now we continue to grow more than when you reigned,” the prime minister said in a speech to the PSD.
“I have great advice for Ana: never vote for the PSD, because if you vote for the PSD, you risk having a prime minister inviting you to emigrate. If you don’t vote for the PSD, a prime minister will who will continue to fight for her not to emigrate.”
The PSD’s parliamentary leader, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, asked the head of the government not to be “predictable” and “repetitive”. “Don’t talk about the right, austerity and the ‘troika’, because you were the ones who brought them in 2010 and 2011,” he issued an appeal.
Costa replied that “it’s hard not to repeat the answers, if they don’t stop repeating the questions”. And he added that the Social Democrats would rule “with all the program they would want to implement, Portugal would in fact have more than four million poor”. “The weight of taxes on GDP is now lower than in 2015, what is higher is the weight of social security contributions, as unemployment has fallen by half,” he said. At one point, a PSD agent, Alexandre Poço, presented a very black fictional story of a young “Ana” dos Olivais. And Costa replied: “I have great advice for Ana: never vote for the PSD, because if you vote for the PSD, you risk having a prime minister inviting you to emigrate. If you don’t vote for the PSD, you will have to have a prime minister who will continue to fight not to let her emigrate.”
two news
In terms of novelties, there were two on Costa’s side: the government will propose a law after the OE2023 (final vote on November 25) that will tax the extraordinary profits made by companies as a result of the war. legislation not only the companies in the energy sector (EDP, Galp, etc.) but also those in the food distribution sector (supermarkets). And it also plans to soon pass legislation that, as he explained, will require banks to negotiate housing credit agreements with their customers when interest rates exceed the rates set by the stress tests when these contracts were signed. .
“We have already invested EUR 5.6 billion between measures to support household income and measures to control energy costs.”
Moreover, he promised that, until the end of the legislature (2026), and despite the war and the inflation crisis, the economy will always be one of growth above the European average. “This budget proposal is much more than next year’s budget proposal. It is the first of four budgets that will implement the strategic vision and goals we have set for ourselves during 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026,” he says. declared. Add: “We want to consolidate the convergence trajectory that we started in 2016 and that was only interrupted in 2020 due to the pandemic. In other words, we want to converge in 2022, in 2023, in 2024, in 2025 and in 2026. We want to do in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. Ten years of convergence, after nearly 15 years of divergence.” He also explained what Portugal has already spent on measures to mitigate the crisis in households and businesses: “We have already invested €5.6 billion between measures to support household income and measures to control the cost of energy.”
The debate also served the Prime Minister to establish a (predictable) link between the resignation of João Cotrim Figueiredo from the IL leadership and the resignation of British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who accused the Liberals of now seeking a leader who may be “more like” André Ventura, from Enough. It also again exposed the deep rift between the PS and the BE. Costa even accused the blockers of “betraying the left electorate” when they voted against the 2021 and 2022 budgets.
Towards the end, the head of government would recognize that we are dealing with a situation that implies “a brutal loss of purchasing power” – to which the opposition as a whole replied that the OE2023 will not mitigate its effects.
The debate ends this Thursday and it is already known what will happen: the absolute majority of the PS will approve the government’s bill, after the debate for the specialty.
Read the “minute by minute” of this debate day in the article below:
Source: DN
