Luís Montenegro went to the market, António Costa to a large supermarket. On the day zero VAT came into effect for a set of 46 essential products, the government and PSD split again in response to the rise in the cost of living, with the Social Democratic leader pointing to “wrong tax policies”, in effect “only symbolic” and that should lead to a cut in the IRS.
For Luís Montenegro, the VAT cut covers “few products” and represents “little money” saved by the Portuguese, with the aggravating factor that there was no oversight guaranteeing an effective price reduction. “I saw that not only the effect was not felt, but in some products there were people who told me that prices had increased yesterday”warned the Social Democratic leader, speaking of “false expectations” about the impact of this measure – “There are two countries: that of the PowerPoints of Dr. António Costa and Dr. Fernando Medina, with great embellishment and very pompous figures, and then the other world, the real world, of the daily life of the Portuguese, which does not accompany the former”.
Speaking at Mercado da Brandoa, as part of the “Sentir Portugal” initiative dedicated this week to the Lisbon district, Luís Montenegro again defended that the government is pursuing a “wrong” fiscal policy and that the most effective measure to combat it of the effects of rising inflation would be a fall in the IRS. “I don’t hide it, I defend the reduction of taxes on labor income as the most efficient fiscal measure. When people pay less IRS, they have more money available, more purchasing power,” the PSD leader insisted.
Underlining the effect of a VAT zero, the Prime Minister said this is a temporary measure, which should last about six months and will be phased out as inflation slows down. On Monday, the Minister of Finance presented the Stability Program with a forecast of the trend of declining inflation in the coming months and years. We will continue to monitor this evolution and take the measures necessary at all times to protect family income as much as possible.” said the prime minister, emphasizing that “inflation is expected to move over the six months in a direction that would allow stimulus withdrawal”. And if not? “We will have to sit down again and see what we can do.”
The “opposition leader” is “worried” about the future
The “land of PowerPoint, parties and advertisements” versus the “land of real life”, of “the Portuguese who face the difficulty every day of not having money to cover basic expenses”, returned to the speech of the social Democratic leader in the afternoon. after an audience with the President of the Republic. Montenegro was received in Belém for about 45 minutes by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa – in a meeting qualified as an “audience for the leader of the opposition” – and said he had conveyed his concerns about the current situation in the country to the head of state. in a “path of impoverishment”. “I have informed the President of the Republic that I am concerned because it seems that the government does not understand the real situation of many Portuguese people. life and that is bad because it does not bode well for the future in terms of changing government policies,” Luís Montenegro said in a statement to journalists. He would not say more, admitting that the meeting focused on “several aspects that should not be disclosed”. “They work in the privacy of institutional cooperation relations and institutional cooperation between a major party like the PSD and the President of the Republic. As for aspects more involved in that privacy of the institutional relationship, understand that I am not going to talk about them,” Montenegro underlined.
The PSD leader’s audience in Belém comes after statements made by the president of the republic last week in which he ruled out an early election scenario and defended that the opposition should assert itself as an alternative, which has not happened so far. Marcelo also stressed that neither the PS’s absolute majority works as a guarantee of non-dissolution, nor can the opposition expect the president to be “pushed” into an election call scenario. Afterwards, Montenegro came to say that the PSD is “an alternative to the PS government” and is ready to rule. “We are ready to take on all the consequences of the alternative when it is opportune. We will hold parliamentary elections in 2026. If the President of the Republic makes a different assessment and puts forward an election moment earlier, we are ready for anything today what is needed, to give hope to the future country,” Montenegro said two days later.
A subject that will inevitably have been on the table in Belém. That does not worry the prime minister. Asked if he feared burning ears after the meeting between the President of the Republic and the Leader of the Opposition, António Costa replied with a “no, no” and assured that it is his duty to focus “on what really matters to the Portuguese”. With Lusa
Source: DN
