Increase the civil service, support for needy families, lower VAT on food. It was with this trio of promises, still undefined, that António Costa returned to the debates in Parliament this Wednesday. A few days after the figures for the 2022 budget implementation were known, the prime minister referred at that time (now Friday) to the concrete implementation of the measures, namely with regard to new support for families. Regarding the price of food commodities, the prime minister said that the executive is negotiating with producers and distributors to lower and stabilize food prices, and admits to reducing VAT – a measure António Costa had so far rejected – but only with the guarantee that the tax cut will be reflected in prices. As for the increase in the civil service (see text on next page), unions will be called to the negotiating table next week, but Costa has not yet clarified the size of the salary increase he will propose and whether the increases will be retroactive. have until January.
It was the Prime Minister’s response to the opposition’s accusations that he is preparing to make a “budgetary sparkle” with the deficit, forcing the Portuguese to grapple with the rise in the cost of living, and when the state directly benefits from the rise in the cost of living. inflation. “The Portuguese are impoverishing” while the state is “getting fat with tax revenues,” said PSD parliamentary leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento., recalling that “food commodity inflation was at 21%, nearly three times the general rate of inflation” – a problem that the government “devalued”. The Social Democratic deputy left a challenge to Costa: “First do as the French government, which reached an agreement with distribution for price regulation in this sector, and then provide financial support to the most vulnerable workers. Finally, reduce the IRS in the fourth, fifth and sixth echelons so that the middle class lives less stifled.”
Costa declined the write-off from the IRS, citing its delayed effect over time, and also rejected allegations from the left that the government wants to shed light on the Brussels deficit. “The big news on Friday will not be the deficit figure, it will be the support that we are free to decide”, the prime minister argued. And when the leader of the BE, Catarina Martins, claimed that the country could no longer withstand “more ads for crumbs”, Costa countered – “If we can support the most needy families and intervene in prices, it is because we have implemented good budgetary management”, he opined, arguing that this represents “freedom for political action”. Costa also reiterated that it is the government’s commitment that “any extraordinary income resulting from inflation” will be “redistributed to the Portuguese”.
Cavaco, “wise of the wise”. And the functions where “talk, talk”
Pervasive in the debate was the question of housing, with virtually all opposition benches expressing criticism – albeit in the opposite direction. This even allowed Costa to say he was “perplexed” by the PCP’s criticism, given that the “More Housing” program has been labeled “communist” on the right. Walked close. Rui Rocha, leader of the Liberal Initiative, called it “cruel neo-Gonçalvismo”, after considering that “millions of Portuguese have already come to the conclusion that this is not possible” – “Even the President of the Republic has already concluded that this is not possible”. Earlier, André Ventura, for Chega, had already questioned whether the Minister of Housing will stay after Belém’s criticism of the program – “I hid myself in a hole”. Miranda Sarmento had already recalled Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s repairs to the plan.
In addition, on housing, the debate took place under the shadow of the President of the Republic, who in recent days has been critical of the measures announced by the government – “poster laws”, a phrase used by Marcelo, was repeated this Wednesday several grind. And if the criticism was primarily aimed at the forced rental of vacant properties, the prime minister insisted that the The possibility of forced rental has been provided for in law since 2014, through a diploma signed “not by three ignorant Marxists, but by three wise and non-Marxist people”.: Assunção Esteves, then President of the Assembly of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, wise of the wise, and by no less wise Pedro Passos Coelho, who is also not a Marxist”. on the government’s housing program, speaking of ignorant Marxists And António Costa would take advantage of yet another issue to leave another message, this time addressing Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa: “The reason why I prefer executive offices over other political offices is that in other offices people talk, talk, talk, but in the executive you either do it or you don’t. And the degree of what gets done is in in the results”.
Still on housing, and in response to the BE, António Costa admitted that the 26,000 homes to be delivered to families in need of housing in 2024 will not be ready in time. But he guarantees the goal remains: “If it’s not zero on April 25, 2024, it’ll be a few months later, but it’s a goal we won’t give up.”
As for the losses of the Social Security Financial Stabilization Fund due to the collapse of the Credit Switzerland, the prime minister did not specify values, but recalled that the fund has “very strict rules and cannot invest more than 20% in equities”, adding that “in 2023 it had a valuation in the equity portfolio of 120 million euros”. “This [do Credit Suisse] it did not bring any profit, on the contrary. But the profitability “achieved since 2018 totals 81 million euros on the Swiss market,” said the prime minister.
Source: DN
