Pedro Nuno Santos speaks to the country after the new Government takes office

The general secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Pedro Nuno Santos, accuses Luís Montenegro of having made a speech of “victimization” and “blackmail”, instead of a speech of “action”, at the inauguration ceremony of the new Government.

At a press conference this afternoon, from the party headquarters in Lisbon, the socialist leader highlighted that “it will be very difficult” for the PS to make the State Budget presented by the Government of the Democratic Alliance viable.

It was the first time that Pedro Nuno Santos spoke publicly since the new Executive took office. The socialist leader was, on Tuesday, absent, without any justification, from the inauguration ceremony of the new Government. In his inauguration speech, the new prime minister, Luís Montenegro, left a challenge to Pedro Nuno Santos, stating that he should assume which attitude he will adopt during this legislature: democratic opposition or blockade.

Responding to Luis Montenegro this afternoon, the PS leader accused the new prime minister of doing “a speech without ambition, without vision, without design for Portugal”. In the eyes of Pedro Nuno Santos, it was “a speech much more focused on the opposition” than on the country’s problems, a speech to be used “in an electoral campaign”.

“It is not a government of action, it is a government of victimization, of lamentation, of complaints”, said Pedro Nuno Santos.

Pedro Nuno Santos recalled the electoral results, noting that the difference between the Democratic Alliance and the PS was around 50 thousand votes and just two fewer deputies.

The Social Democrats “cannot wait for the PS to give them the majority that the Portuguese people did not give them”, argued the socialist general secretary.

Demanding “respect” from the Democratic Alliance, Pedro Nuno Santos claims to have interpreted Luís Montenegro’s inauguration speech as “blackmail” for the PS and emphasizes that socialists are not obliged to facilitate a program they disagree with.

The socialist leader claims that the new head of government had a speech “typical of right-wing governments”, preparing the ground for the argument that “there is no money”. However, Pedro Nuno Santos claims, what put pressure on the PSD was not the “budget surplus” left by the socialists, but the promises that Luis Montenegro made during the electoral campaign.

“The theory of full coffers was not born with the PS. It was the result of an electoral campaign in which the AD promised everything to everyone”, he said.

Pedro Nuno Santos declared that “if Montenegro’s ‘no is no’ is to be taken seriously, what the socialist leader said on election night must also be taken seriously: the PS “is going to be in opposition”.

The socialist general secretary also noted that he continues to wait for a contact from Luís Montenegro to talk about the approval of an amending budget, noting that it is not only the AD that has expectations in relation to other parties.