The PSD president accused the government of inconsistency and insensitivity for initially rejecting the cut in VAT on food, but eventually backed out of the decision, criticizing the “propaganda penchant” of the socialist executive.
“A few days ago, the Minister of Finance ruled out the possibility of reducing VAT on foodstuffs, on Wednesday the Prime Minister will go to parliament and say he will study that possibility and on Friday he will come up with a ‘powerpoint’, but that is still not known what the final design of this descent is […]we are dealing with an insensitive, backslidden, inconsistent and disjointed governmentLuís Montenegro pleaded in statements to journalists in Luxembourg.
The Social Democratic president criticized António Costa’s government for being “always prone to propaganda”. “It’s ‘powerpoint’ on top of ‘powerpoint’ and unfortunately that doesn’t solve people’s problems,” he said.
Montenegro recalled that it is still not known how the reduction of VAT on foodstuffs will be applied and therefore considered that it is not guaranteed to happen.
“In August, when the PSD proposed a food stamp […], because food prices rose exponentially, above inflation, we were called paternalists, auxiliaries, the government qualified our proposal in different ways. Now, eight months later, he has surrendered to help which, in our initial view, was inevitable,” he insisted.
From the perspective of the PSD chairman, it was imperative that support for food “reaches more people” and that “this government’s insensitivity” also comes to light when thousands of Portuguese are excluded.
After a budget performance in 2022 “where he charged more than 9,000 million euros than in the previous year”, Luís Montenegro advocated that the socialist executive “had a duty” to be more ambitious and inclusive”.
“Let me speak as the people speak: only after the money is on this side is it inclined to compensate,” he insisted.
Montenegro also criticized the government’s delight regarding the deficit, which reached 0.4% of GDP in 2022.
“[As pessoas] they look at the party that the PS is celebrating today with the result of the shortage and think to themselves: ‘But I don’t eat a shortage, nor the shortage that puts food on the table. When I fill up at a gas station, I don’t pay with a deficit, I pay more tax than I should have paid'”, he concluded.
Source: DN
