PS deputy secretary-general João Torres on Sunday accused Luis Montenegro of impertinence by accusing the government of impoverishing the country, saying the PSD is the champion of impoverishment in Portugal.
“It takes huge resistance, like that of Luis Montenegro, to accuse the PS of being the party to the impoverishment of our country,” said João Torres in Foz do Arelho, in the municipality of Caldas da Rainha, where he called on the Portuguese “not to be misled by the maneuvers of the opposition, and in particular of the main opposition party, the PPD-PSD”.
Speaking at the XVIII Congress of the CGTP-IN Socialist Trade Union Current, João Torres responded to the statements of Luis Montenegro, who accused the government of “impoverishing the country every day”, which he considered “deplorable and easy to dismantle” .
“In each of the years that the right has ruled our country in the 21st century, there has not been a year in which Portugal has not become poorer than the European Union (EU),” he said, emphasizing that, on the contrary, “the years of convergence from Portugal [com a UE] they all have a mark: they are years in which he reigned and in which he rules the PS”.
“In terms of economic growth, the PS is really the champion of growth,” while “the PSD is the stage feast of the country’s impoverishment,” he added.
Recalling measures such as the extraordinary update of the lowest pensions, free day care centers or the update of the lowest child benefits, the Deputy Secretary General defended that “the PS is in fact the party that fights social injustice”.
João Torres said that the PS “is not available to accept this collective oblivion that some want to impose on the Portuguese” and spared no criticism of the leader of the largest opposition party, accusing him of wanting to “normalize the far right”, on the contrary. to his party, with which “Chega will not succeed, Chega will not succeed”, he guaranteed.
The deputy general secretary of the PS also accused the “new opposition leadership” of being “absolutely addicted to demagoguery and having no sense of state”, which he found “absolutely deplorable” in an economic and social context affected by the war in Ukraine. .
The fact that there is war “does not mean that there cannot be disagreements, it does not mean that the parties cannot criticize the state budget for 2023 and even vote against it”, but, he defended, “it would in any case be case, should ensure that a batch of leaders think about the state of emergency we are facing, with all the economic and social consequences that this entails”.
To an audience associated with trade union movements, the PS’s assistant secretary general also distanced socialist policies from the policies of the liberal initiative to leave the message that the PS was “advancing its progressive agenda of rights and strengthening the social state will fulfill” in Portugal.
Source: DN
