Pedro Nuno Santos wants the PS to be “publicly united” and attacks the Government’s growth forecasts that are lower than the “average of the PS’s eight years”

The PS secretary general considered today that the State Budget for 2025 proposed by the government “is bad because of what it has and above all because of what it doesn’t have”, in a speech in which he called on the party to present itself as united.

“We are different from them [coligação Aliança Democrática]we have a different vision of society and we would have a very different Budget. The Budget is bad. It’s bad because of what it has and above all because of what it doesn’t have”, highlighted Pedro Nuno Santos, who was speaking at the Federative Congress of Coimbra, which took place today at Caves de Coimbra.

The PS secretary general highlighted that the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, during the campaign, stated that socialist governments were “not ambitious” and had “anemic growth rates”, but the budget plan presented by the current Government to Brussels foresees that Portugal will grow in the next four years “less than the average of the eight years of the PS”, which had a “pandemic in the middle”.

During his speech, Pedro Nuno Santos accused the current Government of having “no ambition or strategy”, once again accusing the executive led by Luís Montenegro of being unreliable.

Regarding the State Budget proposal for 2025, the socialist leader focused on three areas of that government document, namely the creation of housing for the middle class but which removes measures for the “most disadvantaged” populations in the country, the absence of a extraordinary increase for pensioners above what is stipulated by law and lack of conditions to attract and retain health professionals, particularly doctors, in the National Health Service.

Pedro Nuno Santos highlighted that it is not just “two matters” that distance PS and PSD in the discussion of the document, also criticizing the Government’s fiscal policy, which, while on the one hand guarantees savings to young people in terms of IRS, contrasts with “a increase in fuel taxes”.

“When we go to the pumps, we will pay for these savings”, he noted, also criticizing the Government for not explaining this measure of tax increase on fuels, accusing it of advancing the measure “in silence”.

In a speech that lasted about half an hour, Pedro Nuno Santos said that leading the political opposition, at this moment, is “a complex process”, therefore defending a party that must present itself as “publicly united”.

“The fight is difficult, but the PS will only be up to it if everyone assumes the responsibilities of intervening with one voice publicly”, he said, in what appears to be a message to the voices that have defended the PS’s abstention from the State Budget .