Medina says that valuing teachers and police officers is “perfectly accommodated” in the current OE

The Minister of Finance considered that the valorization of the careers of teachers and police officers is “perfectly accommodated” in the current State Budget, without the need for an amendment, but warned that it is essential to safeguard the correct accounts.

Speaking to journalists outside the PS national headquarters in Lisbon, where a meeting of the party’s National Political Committee was taking place, Fernando Medina was asked whether, to enhance the careers of security forces and teachers, a corrective budget is necessary, after Pedro Nuno Santos made himself available to facilitate an initiative of this type proposed by a Government of the Democratic Alliance (AD).

In his response, Medina said he had “no idea” of what the AD Government would propose on this matter, highlighting that “there are many formulas and many different solutions for managing the same issue”.

“At this moment, the new Government that takes office will have to define these measures themselves and, therefore, I cannot, in any way, even anticipate their reasonableness before they are known”, he stressed.

The minister stressed that amending budgets only exist “in circumstances where they are necessary” and “are only necessary if certain expenditure ceilings are exceeded each year”, which depends on the solutions that the future Government defines.

“Now, as I don’t know, I have no idea what solutions are being put forward by the AD leaders or the future Prime Minister on a vast set of matters, because he hasn’t yet said how he’s going to do it, (… ) it is impossible to say now how this will have an impact on public accounts”, he said.

However, when asked whether the 154 million euros needed to equate the PSP and GNR’s risk supplement to that of the PJ are accommodating in the current State Budget, Medina replied: “An amount like 154 million is a perfectly accommodating amount within this Budget. year, without the need for an amending budget”.

Already questioned about the issue of teachers, Medina gave a similar answer.

“It’s a budget of around 300 million, it’s also perfectly accommodating within this year’s Budget without any amendments”, he said.

The Minister of Finance stressed, however, that “the scheduling of all decisions that have to be taken must be seen as a whole, in their full dimension”.

“These are complex matters in several areas, they have to be analyzed as a whole, it is necessary to work on this with all rigor. The new Government has to assume functions, it has to work, it has to make its proposals”, he stressed.

Medina argued that, more important than “implying or not implying an amending budget”, what is important is ensuring that the solutions presented by the Government are “sustainable from the point of view of public finances”.

For the Minister of Finance, it is “absolutely essential” to maintain the “direction of the correct accounts that has been defined and that has been a great asset of the country, an extraordinary security asset that took many, many years to build”.

“It cannot, must not be destroyed quickly, at a glance, because this will leave Portugal in a much more adverse and undesirable situation”, he warned.

Asked if Pedro Nuno Santos was hasty in making himself available to facilitate a possible amending budget for the AD, Fernando Medina refused.

“Pedro Nuno Santos presented the PS’s availability to be able to go as far as approving an amending budget in convergence with measures that appear in the macroeconomic scenario that the PS itself presented and which, in fact, I designed myself”, he said.

On Tuesday, after a hearing with the President of the Republic, Pedro Nuno Santos expressed his willingness to make a rectifying AD budget viable that aims to enhance the salary scales of teachers, health professionals, court officials and security forces until summer.