On Wednesday, the prime minister accused the PSD of paternalism and promoting a charitable state by proposing food stamps, stressing that the package of measures proposed by the Social Democrats is less than half inferior to that of the government.
“Families should have self-determination and freedom to manage what they want and the state should not put itself in a paternalistic position by saying, ‘I give this support, but it’s only to buy food’,” António Costa defended, and stressed the merit of the support of 125 euros granted by the government to every active citizen.
The leader of the executive was confronted by journalists in Faro with statements by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who defended that “the PSD has helped enormously” to implement the government’s package of extraordinary measures. “a sense of state and contributed”.
“I do not comment on the President of the Republic and it is not exactly up to the Prime Minister to comment on the PSD, but what I remember exactly here in the Algarve is that the leader of the PSD presented a package of measures that , in the total amount alone was less than half the amount of the program we have now presented and ours is exclusively for families,” said António Costa.
“It is intended for families, not just those families who were covered by the PSD package, but for example the extraordinary support of €125 for every active citizen covers not only the most deprived people who have already provided a support of €120 this year, but covers all those who earn on average up to 2,700 euros gross per month,” he continued.
The prime minister stressed that this support is not done “on a food stamp basis, it is a recipe that families will have to manage, because people have to eat, but they also have to pay for the house, they also have children to take care of.” they also have other needs, and above all they need to have the freedom to manage their budget”.
“It shouldn’t be the state, in a charitable way, saying ‘there are X here, but you can only spend on food,'” he underlined, speaking on the sidelines of the Faro airport meeting. as the airport of Gago Coutinho, in honor of the centenary of the first air crossing of the South Atlantic, connecting Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro and the 200th anniversary of Brazilian independence.
The government on Monday approved a package of measures to support incomes as a result of rising inflation, including the additional payment of a half pension, due in October, and a €125 aid to be given to all non-retired people. . a gross monthly income of up to 2,700 euros.
Marcelo considers the support package “a balanced solution”. “PSD has helped a lot”
On that day, the president of the republic ruled that the family support package announced by the government is “a balanced solution”, as “the PSD has helped a lot” and that there is “implicit consensus”.
Asked whether a broad consensus is possible, the head of state, despite criticism from the PSD and the rest of the opposition, took the view that “the opposition should say it short”, but emphasized the role of the Social Democrats, who also presented their proposals for a social emergency program.
“I think the PSD helped a lot, you can’t imagine how it helped, he spoke before, admitted money was injected directly into families and spending increased, it’s a major turnaround for the PSD. This turn is good for the PS, which would be if the PSD said ‘that’s where they spend money’,” he said.
For Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “the PSD had a sense of state and contributed”, as it means “an implicit consensus” between the two largest parties.
The PSD’s social emergency program was presented in detail on Friday for an amount of approximately EUR 1.5 billion, with the VAT on energy being reduced to the minimum rate (6%), allocation of a food voucher in the amount of EUR 40 per month to all retirees and retirees who have a pension/pension of up to $1,108 between September and December of this year, and to all active-life citizens who earn income up to the third tier of the IRS during the same period.
Source: DN
