PS approves an amendment just to increase teachers, NHS and police | Legislative 2024

He lost the elections and will be leader of the opposition, but Pedro Nuno Santos is already conditioning the first months of government of an executive led by Luís Montenegro that he has not even been appointed to form yet. The secretary general of the PS left the Palácio de Belém this Tuesday afternoon showing his willingness to, until the beginning of the summer, participate with the future government in a solution to “value the careers and salary scales” of teachers, members of the security forces, health professionals and court officials.

If it is necessary to change spending limits, the PS is “available to facilitate an amending budget that is limited to matters of consensus”. All this done in time for the European elections, which take place at the beginning of June, and which will be a test of the leadership of both Pedro Nuno Santos (in the PS and the opposition) and Luís Montenegro (in the government). “There is no reason to drag our feet on this matter: the Government still in office has left us with an economic, financial and political situation that allows us to take this step forward and the PS wants to be part of that solution.”

The guarantee was left by socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos at the end of the two-hour audience with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, but, when questioned by journalists, he did not reveal the response he received from the President of the Republic regarding the specifications he was leaving to Montenegro. . The socialist leader, however, emphasized his goals: this amending budget will have to be “limited to issues of consensus” between the two parties.

He admitted that he has not yet spoken to Luís Montenegro about the matter, but assured that he will resolve it quickly: “I myself will make contact with the leader of the coalition [AD] to demonstrate this availability of the PS and even indicate two names that can, within 30 days, find a solution so that, by the beginning of summer, we can resolve the situation of these public administration professionals.” Pedro Nuno Santos did not want to reveal who is think about choosing for this trading task.

The political initiative of the opposition leader, which anticipates the hearing of the AD leaders, Luís Montenegro, president of the PSD, and Nuno Melo, leader of the CDS, this Wednesday, does not end there: the PS also wants to participate in the decision on the location of the future Lisbon airport. “This is the way we will work from now on”, promised Pedro Nuno Santos, who wants to exercise his role as a “responsible opposition”, but “stable and strong”.

Despite this openness, which is intended to fulfill promises very similar to those made by both the PS and AD for elections, there is no great opening for future State budgets. The PS’s making the general state budget for 2025 viable “is practically impossible”, insisted Pedro Nuno Santos, remembering that he had already said the same on election night, because the budgetary exercise represents “an annual decline in the government program” and that of the coalition right-wing is completely different from what one from the PS would be.

And it’s not just a matter of programmatic and strategic differences for the country; It is also for “a democratic reason”, argued the socialist leader. “The PS understands that, from the point of view of the quality of our democracy, it must be the PS that leads the opposition. We would never be able to lead the opposition if, in some way, we were committed to this governance, through the commitment of the PS with state budgets.”

Availability is, he insisted, “only on matters where there is, in fact, consensus and can be resolved in advance”. An adverb that leaves in the air the idea that in the minds of socialists there is some hope that, in October, the budget could be a bone of contention for the right. “We cannot ask the PS to be the guarantor of the right-wing government.”

A “stable and lasting” government

The socialist general secretary also defended that from Montenegro, which presents itself “as the winner”, “what is expected is that tomorrow [quarta-feira] present a stable government solution.” “The country needs a strong and stable government. But it also needs a stable, strong and solid opposition. And that is what we will be in this new political framework: the PS will be the opposition, it will be the democratic alternative”, he promised.

And he once again insisted on what he said on election night, in the speech in which he assumed defeat: that the PS could not assume the responsibility of being a government because “it doesn’t have a majority [à esquerda] to present.” “It has almost no probability of happening,” he replied, when asked about the emigration votes and a scenario of the PS having more deputies or votes than the AD – something that is already mathematically impossible taking into account the emigration votes already counted.

“We won’t gain anything from this”, he stated about a minority PS government, with Alexandra Leitão, deputy, member of the national secretariat and coordinator of the electoral program, at his side, who, on Sunday, admitted that the PS could still form a government if, even if there was no majority on the left, it would emerge from the counting of emigration votes with more votes or more deputies than the AD.

This was the penultimate audience of the President of the Republic to the parties and coalitions that elected deputies to the Assembly of the Republic in the elections of March 10. Only the Democratic Alliance (AD) is missing, which is scheduled for this Wednesday, at 5 pm.