Duarte Pacheco compares socialist budget surplus to Salazar’s full coffers

PSD leader Duarte Pacheco tells Renaissance that having a budget surplus is positive, but highlights that the savings were made at the expense of the degradation of public services. And he compared the savings of socialist executives to Salazar’s full coffers. Both left behind a poor country.

“It’s a question of political choice. I understand that in the proposal made by the Minister of Finance still in office, Fernando Medina, this surplus must be saved because community funds do not last a lifetime and so that there is a savings, when the community funds run out, so the country can continue to do public work. I understand this reasoning. But, on the other hand, I also understand the other side, I mean, we are saving, but at the cost of a complete degradation of public services”, he criticized.

The budget surplus is known this Monday and will be released by the National Statistics Institute and could be above 1%.

Duarte Pacheco gives the example of doctors who “if we continue to pay for something that is not acceptable, we will not have it”.

“We won’t have teachers any day, we won’t have police officers, we won’t have people for the Armed Forces, we won’t have anyone because we save money, it’s true. But people they slammed the door and all left the Public Administration because they are not available to receive what we are paying them”, analyzes

Pacheco asks for a common-sense assessment of the new Government and “the surplus will possibly be drastically reduced”. “But if it means better public services. It’s a correct option”, assesses the social democrat.

The former PSD coordinator on the parliamentary Budget and Finance committee even draws a parallel with the Estado Novo which left the coffers full, but a country in poverty.

“It’s always good to leave some savings aside, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But I compare it to the regime that was deposed 50 years ago. We all said that Doctor Salazar left the coffers full, because he did, but left a very poor country. This is not the path we want. It takes common sense and being balanced,” she argues.

At a time when there is a debate about whether or not the new AD government will need to approve an amending budget, the PSD leader emphasizes that it is necessary to start functions, understand how and if captivations were used, for example, and then take a decision

“The Government is authorized to carry out captivations, it is not obliged to carry out them. Did the Government carry out these captivations? If you did, you have a financial cushion there. The government didn’t do it, it only did half of it? The cushion does not exist, or on the contrary, it is only half of what was initially foreseen and, therefore, only effectively when it gets there, when it assumes functions and receives all the information from Finance, will the Government be able to make the final decision to move forward [com mais despesa]”, he assesses.

This Monday the exact number of the budget surplus is known. On Saturday, the president of the PS, Carlos César, told journalists that he hoped that the balance in the national accounts would not be excessive in a veiled criticism of the choices made by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina.