LEGISLATIVE – Hugo Soares (AD) defends tax cuts to put an end to the increase in social inequalities

The leader of the Democratic Alliance (AD) in the district of Braga, Hugo Soares, lamented this Friday “the high levels of poverty and the increase in social inequalities” which “are getting worse, reaching more and more workers and families burdened with current expenses”.

Noting that “without more income or assets, it is not possible for these people to avoid poverty”, Hugo Soares recalled that the government program of the coalition led by Luís Montenegro proposes the reinforcement of the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly and the creation of the Solidarity Remunerative Supplement, with the aim of ensuring, in 2028, a minimum monthly income of 820 euros for pensioners.

With a view to reducing the poverty rate among workers, AD “is ​​committed to increasing the national minimum wage to 1,000 euros in 2028, and increasing the average wage to 1,750 euros in 2030, based on productivity gains and social dialogue”.

Taking stock of meetings with officials from Cáritas Arquidiocesana de Braga and the União Distrital das IPSS, the social-democratic candidate warned: “There is an emergency in Portugal for the urgent reduction of poverty, with particular attention to workers and pensioners. This is a situation that is also worsening due to the continuous increase in the tax burden”.

The leader of the PSD/CDS/PPM coalition candidacy stressed that “it is absolutely essential to reduce taxes”, whether on companies or workers, especially because “the final price always falls on people and families”. An example of this is, according to DECO’s price monitoring, “the food basket that continues to increase above the inflation rate and well above the evolution of wages”.

“WORRYING NUMBERS”

“There is one certainty that everyone has already been able to take away from this campaign: the PS refuses to lower taxes. The Democratic Alliance is the only government alternative that accepts lower taxes as a tool to increase people’s income and economic growth”, highlighted Hugo Soares.

Alongside “worrying numbers” regarding poverty rates in the Portuguese population and “the strangulation of people’s income with higher taxes”, the leader of the AD candidacy denounced the “political practice of the PS in creating difficulties for social institutions, which seek help the most vulnerable people.”

“Poverty has reached unacceptable levels”, protested Hugo Soares.

According to the most recent data, cited by AD, for the end of 2022, the at-risk-of-poverty rate before social benefits has increased to more than 41% of the population – which is higher than that recorded at the beginning of the century. There are 2.1 million Portuguese people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The various indicators of income inequality have also worsened in the last five years. At the same time, Portugal reached the maximum tax burden ever, having the 4th highest tax effort in Europe.

The Democratic Alliance warns that, simultaneously, “Portugal has been successively surpassed in development indices, moving towards the tail of Europe in GDP per capita: since 2000 it has been surpassed by six Cohesion countries, and in 2024 it is expected to be the same by Romania”.

With the PS governments, “the number of workers earning the national minimum wage grew to around 840 thousand and the average wage differential is increasingly reduced. Around two thirds of young people have a monthly income of less than one thousand euros. In 2022, around 1.5 million pensions had a value below the minimum wage, with a minimum monthly pension of around 292 euros”.