Pedro Nuno Santos criticizes Montenegro. “A Government of victimization, of lamentation, of complaints”

“A speech without ambition, without vision, without any design for Portugal”, said, this Wednesday, the secretary general of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, about Luís Montenegro’s intervention in taking office as the new prime minister.

“It was a speech more focused on the opposition than on Portugal”, criticized Pedro Nuno Santos, who was absent from the inauguration ceremony.

For Pedro Nuno Santos, Montenegro’s speech shows “a Government of victimization, of lamentation, of complaints about not letting them work and not letting them do what they want to do”.

The socialist general secretary said that the AD, the PSD and the Government “cannot put themselves” in the position of waiting for “the PS to decide to give the majority that the people did not give”.

Pedro Nuno Santos therefore asks for respect for all parties. He criticizes Montenegro’s words, considering that they amount to “blackmail on the PS, as if the PS were obliged to support and facilitate a Government with which the PS disagrees”.

“If Luís Montenegro’s no is to be taken seriously, what I said on election night is also to be taken seriously. The PS will be a responsible opposition”, said Pedro Nuno Santos, ensuring that the party will vote in favor of measures it agrees with, but against those it does not agree with.

Pedro Nuno Santos gives as an example the PS’s willingness to make a amending budget “limited to issues on which there is consensus between the different parties”.

The PS leader also referred to the part of Montenegro’s speech in which the budget surplus is mentioned. “It is not the budget surplus that puts pressure on governance”, but rather “the economic program of the PSD, of the AD”, he said at the PS headquarters, in Largo do Rato, in Lisbon.

“The theory of full coffers resulted from an electoral campaign in which the AD promised everything to everyone. We are talking about billions of euros in lost tax revenue and increased spending”, he stressed.

For Pedro Nuno Santos, the “theory of full coffers was widely defended and presented throughout the electoral campaign and is reflected in the macroeconomic scenario of the PSD and AD”.

“We witnessed the beginning of a speech and the preparation of the political ground for the non-implementation of everything that was promised”, he stated, referring, for example, to the updating of salary scales for different professional groups in the Public Administration.

Pedro Nuno Santos highlighted the PS’s “firm commitment to defending its program and ideas”.

He added that, from a programmatic point of view, “there are more similarities between the AD’s response and what is foreseen in Chega’s program than with the PS’s program”. “We have different visions of the social state, of fiscal policy, of the response that needs to be given to national economic development”,

“It is, in fact, difficult to reconcile our vision of the country and the vision of AD”, concluded Pedro Nuno Santos.

Asked about his absence at the inauguration ceremony, Pedro Nuno Santos stated: “I was unable to be present. We were represented. The PS was represented by Alexandra Leitão and it is not possible to draw any more conclusions than simply this”.

Regarding Luís Montenegro’s challenge, during the inauguration, on whether the PS will be a “democratic opposition” or a “democratic blockade” in this legislature, Pedro Nuno Santos once again repeated that the party will be a “responsible opposition” . “We will defend our positions, we will approve what we agree with and we will vote against what we disagree with. Period”, he defended.