The PSD chairman on Tuesday found the prime minister “kicking back” on implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) as he continues to “push” the country with news, promises and warnings.
“I believe that the prime minister has kicked backwards. And if you pedal backwards, you usually stay in the same place. Anyone who rides a bicycle knows how it goes. And so the prime minister is what he has been.” do, because it binds the country with news, promises and warnings, that you just have to walk on the territory to prove that they do not reach the ground,” said Luís Montenegro to journalists, in the municipality of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Guarda.
This is how the PSD leader responded to statements made by the Prime Minister, António Costa, who had defended in the morning that it was important for the country to remain focused on the implementation of the PRR in order to transform the national economy and make it more sustainable.
“It is important that we remain focused and focused on the proper implementation of the recovery and resilience program,” said António Costa in Alcobaça, challenging Portuguese companies to “pedal” so that the country reaches the end of the program, in 2026 , better prepared “not only to face crises that the future will bring”, but above all with “more and better jobs, greater corporate profitability and a more sustainable economy”.
The CEO, visiting today Solancis, leader of the Green Agenda of the Natural Stone sector, compared economic growth to “cycling” and expressed the collective will of the whole peloton to keep pedaling to reach the finish line, on December 21 2026 , not only with this sector, but with the entire “structurally transformed” economy.
In Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Luís Montenegro, after visiting a sheep and cattle breeder and taking part in a meeting with farmers under the “Sentir Portugal” initiative, said that António Costa had “made the wrong strategic choice” with regard to to divert the PRR by €18.2 billion “mainly to public investment”.
“When businesses, people, families, small agricultural producers were waiting to have funding there too for the recovery and resilience of our economic fabric,” he said.
Luís Montenegro then distinguished the differences between his travels around the country and those of the Prime Minister: “I am here mainly to listen to people and the Prime Minister is selling illusions”.
The Social Democratic leader pointed out that some of the “illusions” have already been repeated in the Guarda district, as is the example of the PS’s promise regarding the works on the TIR terminal of Vilar Formoso.
“If the Prime Minister, instead of just eating some croquettes and doing some ‘powerpoint’ sessions on the PRR and calling for more speed, actually kicks…” he said, without finishing the sentence and insist that the government should “control the country’s kicking”.
According to you, António Costa returns to the first decade of the century when José Sócrates was prime minister and “there were tents that went from country to country giving various presentations” and “where worlds and funds were promised for all agents”.
“Doctor António Costa returns to that first decade of this century when another socialist government of which he was also a part and which he later enthusiastically supported as number two of the PS, also sold that illusion to Portugal,” he stressed.
In conclusion, he said the PRR is important, but sees other European countries “really benefiting from this funding” and Portugal “pedaling backwards and always being in the same place”.
Source: DN
