The PSD believed that the aid announced by the government this Friday “comes too late”, “is short-lived” and “perpetuates the impoverishment of the Portuguese”, saying they are “completely ignoring the middle class”.
Speaking to journalists, the PSD parliament leader, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, began by saying that “any support for the most vulnerable families is positive”.
“Because it is a positive support, it is a support that comes late. The PSD has insisted that the government should have supported families more”, he said.
For the Social Democrats the government “continues the impoverishment of the Portuguese by collecting tax revenues like never before and redistributing a small portion”.
When asked if the 1% increase for civil servants is enough, the PSD parliament leader opined that it “falls far short of the loss of purchasing power”, arguing that “it should keep up with inflation”.
On the other hand, the parliamentary leader of the PSD accused the government of “a certain hypocrisy” regarding food and goods.
“When the PSD presented an emergency program in September, it said that support should be directed to the food basket. Now, after six months, the government now acknowledges that there are problems with the food basket, but does not announce anything: we do not know what the distribution and production agreement is and we do not know which goods will have zero VAT,” he warned.
Miranda Sarmento said the PSD remains “with many doubts about the effectiveness of the measure”, recalling that as an alternative, the Social Democrats proposed direct financial aid to the most vulnerable families and a cut in the IRS for the middle class.
Finally, regarding the announcement that the deficit was 0.4% last year, the PSD parliament leader underlined “it is important that the country has a balanced bill”, and that this should be the norm in all situations.
“But the path to this deficit result is completely wrong. It was a path to increase tax revenue, it increased by €5.5 billion above last year’s estimate, and is also achieved with an underspending of public investment, which has increased by 38% should have risen. and rose by 7.5%,” he stressed.
“At a very difficult time, this deficit was achieved with a totally wrong path of impoverishment,” he said.
The government will reduce VAT on essential food products, Finance Minister Fernando Medina announced today, setting the rate to zero in the basket of essential goods.
It was also announced that civil servants will receive a new salary increase of 1% this year and an increase in the food subsidy.
Enough says that measures announced by the government are “dry gunpowder shot”.
Chega’s president today opined that the aid package announced by the government to mitigate the rise in the cost of living is a “dry gunpowder shot” and claimed to have “zero confidence” in the effectiveness of the measures.
“We have no confidence in the effectiveness of these measures,” says André Ventura, in statements to journalists in the Assembly of the Republic.
The leader of Chega made this known in a first response to the support measures announced by the government today “this program is a shot of dry powder and is a propaganda exercise”.
André Ventura believed that this support “absolutely forget about the middle class and companies” and will be “very little, almost nothing for the Portuguese” in the face of the “effective income crisis”.
“The government, with the extra income it had, had an obligation today to give much more to the Portuguese,” he stressed.
IL accuses government of “giving with one hand what it took with two”
IL President Rui Rocha believed that the measures presented by the government this Friday represent an “amending budget”, accusing the socialist executive of “giving with one hand what it took with two in recent months “.
“The first comment on the package of measures has to do with the fact that 90 days have passed since the National Budget for 2023 came into force and, strictly speaking, what the Finance Minister, Fernando Medina, has presented today is an amending budget “, supported Rui Rocha, in statements to journalists, in parliament, in a first reaction to the support measures announced today by the government.
What the socialist executive did, the liberals believed, was “give with one hand what it took with two in recent months”.
Considering that what was needed was a “clear tax cut”, Rui Rocha defended that “instead of the paternalistic tone used in this intervention, it would have been better to start by thanking the Portuguese and even apologizing to as “the Portuguese are cutting their spending, finding it difficult to make it to the end of the month” and the government continues to levy “extraordinary taxes”.
PS points out that certain accounts now allow more social support
The PS, through Eurico Brilhante Dias, defended that the existence of certain bills now allows the government to continue with new support against inflation and contrasted this course of action with “the cuts” of the last PSD/CDS driver.
These views were put forward by the socialist parliamentary leader after the government announced “additional support” in the order of €2.5 billion, including VAT on some essential food products, a one percent increase in public administration, aid for families, vulnerable populations and agricultural production .
“The PS is not only pleased with the result of the backlog [de 0,4% em 2022) e da dívida [113,9%], but also with the package of measures presented today to support families and businesses. With the right policies and accounts, it is possible to stand side by side with the Portuguese,” he insisted.
After that, the leader of the socialist bank tried to contrast the executives of António Costa and those of Pedro Passos Coelho:
“In the press conferences of the period of the PSD/CDS government, wage cuts and pension cuts were presented. Today, the Portuguese have a government that presents a good result in the public accounts and that, therefore, as in 2022, will continue in 2023 with the supporting the most vulnerable, restoring civil servants’ incomes and the production of the agricultural sector,” he said.
In an allusion to one of the most important measures taken by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, Eurico Brilhante Dias stressed that the government “will enter into an agreement with the distribution and producers of food products to grant a reduction in VAT on essential food products stand to be immediately transferred to people”.
Updated
Source: DN
