The Prime Minister stated this Friday that “there is more to life than the Budget”, highlighting that today the Government is dealing with other “very important” issues such as mobility and energy transition. Still on board the train between Lisbon and Entroncamento, where an extraordinary Council of Ministers dedicated to these topics is being held, Luís Montenegro was approached by journalists, but did not elaborate further.
Tiago Miranda
“In addition to wishing them a good trip and good work, saying that our train trip and the thematic Council of Ministers that we are going to hold is a good opportunity to also tell the country that there is more to life than the Budget, and that life is being dealt with every day by the Government“, he stated.
To several questions from the media, about the counter-proposal that the PS has already promised to present to what the Prime Minister revealed on Thursday, the head of the Government repeated the phrase made famous by the former President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio: “there is more life for beyond the Budget”.
“The Budget is important, but it is important that the Government works every day and works every day in the various areas of action, which give people quality of life and give the country a future”, he said.
After a journey of around an hour between Santa Apolónia station (Lisbon) and Entroncamento (Santarém district), the ministers made the short journey between the train station and the Chamber in electric buses.
The Council of Ministers started at around 3pm, preceded by the traditional family photo, which was only missed by the Ministers of Finance and Defense, for scheduling reasons. At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, the Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, and the Minister of the Environment, Graça Carvalho, will give the usual briefing.
In Thursday’s fortnightly debate, the Prime Minister announced that measures in the area of mobility and energy transition would be approved today, highlighting the national rail pass with a monthly cost of 20 euros per month.
On Thursday, after the second meeting between the prime minister and the secretary general of the PS on the State Budget for 2025, Luís Montenegro presented, at the official residence in São Bento, the general lines of what he had classified as a “proposal irrefutable” for the document to become viable.
In the young IRS, the Government drops the table it proposed with maximum rates of 15% and starts from the model currently in force, from the socialist executive of António Costa, but extending it to all young people regardless of their qualifications, their duration period from five to 13 years and limiting it to income up to the sixth bracket (in its original proposal it went up to the eighth).
In the IRC, it maintains the objective of a transversal reduction in this tax for companies, but in a less ambitious way: one percentage point in 2025 (instead of two) and four points instead of six until the end of the legislature, when it would set the 17% (in the Government program the target was 15%).
The prime minister said he was convinced that the reflection that the PS secretary general will make on the counter-proposal presented by the Government will lead to the feasibility of the State Budget for 2025 (OE2025), and showed that he was available to improve the counter-proposal , but warning that the margin is increasingly reduced.
Upon leaving Largo do Rato, in brief statements to journalists, Pedro Nuno Santos assured that the socialists will make their contribution to avoid a failure of the OE2025 and early elections.
A PS source confirmed to Lusa that the socialists will “soon” present a counterproposal and on Tuesday the PS leader has scheduled a meeting with the parliamentary group to discuss the budget.
