A month later, António Costa returns to Parliament for another general policy debate. Two hours and fifty minutes in which the obvious is expected: the prime minister in discussion with economic growth figures; and the opposition – perhaps excluding the PCP – taking pictures of the “Galamba case”. Now with a difference: the relationship between the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic became one of great distance after Costa refused to resign the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba.
“The rules of democracy are clear, with the current scenario the government resigns or the government is fired.”
It is already known: the right of the PS everyone is asking for the head of the Minister of Infrastructure (and also for days the resignation of the general secretary of SIRP, Graça Mira Gomes, demanded by the PSD and Tjega). The Social Democrats, through Luís Montenegro, have already announced that it is time for early elections. “The rules of democracy are clear with the current scenario or the government resigns or the government is fired,” the PSD leader said in a statement at the party’s headquarters in Porto a few days ago. However, yesterday, in light of the developments highlighted by CNN Portugal on “Operation Tutti Frutti”, the finance minister may be under fire again. But the case also concerns the PSD, so here the criticism should only come from Chega and the Liberal Initiative.
Costa will argue what he argued the day before yesterday, in response to the harsh criticism he received from Cavaco Silva on Saturday: the right is in a “madness” to overthrow the government. As “fortunately, the Portuguese economy is avoiding the major difficulties it has faced due to the pandemic [da covid-19]with the start of the war [na Ucrânia] and with inflation”, the right in Portugal is in a “frenzy” to “create an artificial political crisis as soon as possible, so as not to give the Portuguese time to feel – and they have every right to – the benefits of this economic recovery”.
Today, the Prime Minister will receive in his favor the figures released by the OECD yesterday.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated to 0.4 percent in the first quarter, up from 0.2 percent in the last three months of 2022, with Portugal, with a growth of 1.6 percent, the country of the fastest growing organization.
Among the G7 countries, the strongest GDP increases were recorded between January and March in Canada, with 0.6 percent (vs. 0.0 percent between October and December), in Italy, with 0.5 percent (vs. -0.1 percent) and Japan, with 0.4 percent (against 0.0 percent). In the United States, activity increased by 0.3 percent, but was less than the 0.6 percent increase in the last quarter of 2022. In Germany, which had experienced a 0.5 percent decline between October and December, GDP stagnated in the first quarter of 2023. France, on the other hand, emerged from the stagnation of the last quarter of 2022 with an increase of 0.2 percent between January and March. The eurozone also experienced a slightly positive evolution, from a stagnation in the last three months of last year to an increase of 0.1% between January and March. Of the OECD countries for which data are available, Portugal recorded the highest growth in the first quarter (1.6 percent), followed by Colombia (1.4 percent), Mexico (1.3 percent) and Finland (1.1 percent). ). At the other end of the scale, Ireland recorded a decline of 2.7 percent.
Thus, António Costa will oppose the country of the “media bubble”, where the opposition feeds on “cases and cases” against the “real” country where the economy is growing, along with a gradual reduction of both public and national debt. . . Both Chega and the Liberal Initiative have already argued that the PR should dissolve parliament.
Source: DN
