“We have not recorded or decided.” This was the formula the prime minister used Monday night to comment on the possibility of the government introducing a tax on excessive corporate profits.
Interviewed on TVI/CNN Portugal by journalists Pedro Santos Guerreiro and José Alberto Carvalho, Costa commented on this hypothesis – already defended in PS by Carlos César, Pedro Marques and Alexandra Leitão, not to mention the Minister of Economy, Antónia Costa e Silva – that the government “analyzes” and “if justified, there will be measures and if not justified, there will be no measures”, leaving the options open.
The interview started with the question about pension increases, at a time when there is speculation about the possibility that the calculation formulas will be changed in the future by reducing the pension amounts.
“There is no trick”, “by the end of 2023, retirees will see the year-round loss of purchasing power fully recovered,” assured the head of government, who said next year’s increases will be between 3.53% and 4.43 % will lie.
As for 2024, however, it was not linked to any value (“I am not going to discuss at this point what the increase will be in 2024”), noting, however, that the increases cannot follow the value of inflation as lower are . “We cannot give extraordinary inflation a lasting effect,” he stressed, saying that if pensions rose in line with inflation “the country would lose 13 years of pension” and that “would not be fair, balanced and responsible”.
For 2023, he said the government is working with inflation forecasts on the order of 7.4% – but, he added, salary increases in the civil service will be lower. Speaking of support for the economy from the wave of inflation, he added that he will announce what he will do with companies this Thursday.
Other topics of the interview were SNS and the new Lisbon airport.
As for the new airport, António Costa said he thinks an appointment with the PSD is “not far off”. For now, however, this understanding will only deal with the “methodology” to be followed in order to arrive at a final decision. And as for this final decision, he showed no rush, saying it won’t be until the end of 2023, and according to him the talks with Luís Montenegro (and without the Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos) are taking place in a “calm way”. .
On health, he explained that the government will elect the new director general of the SNS after the president of the republic passes the law regulating the creation of the post.
Meanwhile, he explained that this new official will be responsible for the “operational” management of the “daily” of the SNS, with the government responsible for key political guidelines. The head of government commented on this summer’s crisis in obstetric emergencies and insinuated criticism of the functioning of the services. He even gave the example of TVI’s newsroom: “It’s not because people go on vacation that the broadcast is interrupted.”
Specifically, he praised the performance of the services in Porto, in contrast to Lisbon: “Lisbon has a lot to learn from Porto in many things, especially in the field of the organization of health services,” he said, referring to the metropolitan way of working what emergencies are organized there (an implicit compliment to the current president of Hospital de S. João, Fernando Araújo, who led this reorganization when he ran ARS do Norte).
António Costa also devalued the various internal crises in his government, noting that they only prove that “absolute majority does not mean there are no problems”.
Source: DN
