The coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda this Sunday criticized the prime minister’s “deafening silence” on issues related to TAP, stressing that “you can’t even shield” in any minister’s explanation.
“The silence of the Prime Minister [António Costa] on TAP issues is deafening and hard to explain. At the moment, the Prime Minister cannot count on any minister to explain, as no explanation from any minister is worth it. Moreover, a minister says one thing and another minister the opposite,” says Catarina Martins.
“This really is when the Prime Minister should start explaining to the country on a ‘file’ in which I think we are shocked, and the whole country is shocked, with the incompetence, irresponsibility and frivolity with which a treaty has become a strategic company. for Portugal and that means millions of euros for the country”he added.
The blockista coordinator spoke to journalists at a conference at BE’s national headquarters in Lisbon to announce that the party will present a draft resolution in parliament on Monday for the protection of incomes in the face of inflation and rejection of the 2023 stability program/ 27, presented by the government on the 17th of this month.
“We believe that the government’s plan for the country impoverishes the population and does not protect public services in Portugal,” said Catarina Martins.
When asked about the words of the President of the Republic, in which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa defended that there may be good and bad news regarding a possible government dissolution, Catarina Martins said that, despite being “neither a commentator nor a decoder of the head of state, it is a fact that there is an executive “involved in many serious matters”.
“We have the case of ministers who, in ‘files’ involving millions of euros, give contradictory versions in parliament, such as TAP, in which the prime minister cannot explain who is right if it is minister Mariana Vieira da Silva, or whether it is Minister Ana Catarina Mendes who says that there are legal opinions that are not shown, or whether it is the Minister of Finance who says that these opinions do not even exist,” insisted the coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda.
For Catarina Martins, this is “just one of many cases” in which it is noted that public affairs are “not handled in the manner that democracy and republican ethics require”, which has led to instability in the country, exacerbated by problems in education, healthcare, security forces and judiciary.
“We cannot continue to have schools with a lack of classes. At the moment there are many students without classes and not because of the strikes. That is because 30,000 teachers are missing in public schools. […] And with the Stability Program that is being presented, none of that will be resolved, there is no margin.”he stressed, defending the same with regard to the health sector.
“We have emergencies that need to be closed in Health, and we have a sort of map that shows which door to go to every day, because you never know which door will be open or closed in the ER. […] With the Stability Program that [o Governo] presents, there will be no room for this to be resolved,” he added.
For the blockista leader, what is happening in Health and Education is also happening in Justice, in the security forces and even in Housing, “in which the government makes successive announcements of measures that amount to absolute zero, while people see his life increasingly and more unstable” .
“The democratic debate in Portugal should above all talk about people’s concrete living conditions. For the Portuguese people, it is very difficult to keep hearing statements about whether or not there is stability in politics, without talking about the conditions of stability in people’s lives,” he said.
“People are important. You have to know how people can pay their bills at the supermarket, if they get a house to live in, if they go to the hospital to find out if it’s open and if there’s a school for their kids with teachers,” concluded.
In this sense, Catarina Martins pushed for the idea of discussing “the objective conditions of the people of the country”, since otherwise “there is a risk of creating a debate between political protagonists, which says absolutely nothing to the people.” “.
Source: DN
