Chega’s abstention was decisive this Wednesday in approving four bills proposed by the Left to reduce the IRS. One of them had been presented by the PS, another by the PCP and the remaining two by the BE, with the IL also voting in favor of the block diplomas and abstaining on the others. A Government proposal to reduce the IRS was reduced to the specialty for two weeks, the same happening with IL and Chega (in the latter case for 60 days). PSD and CDS voted against the six diplomas considered, but only managed to fail those of Livre and PAN.
The parliamentary leader of the PSD, Hugo Soares, regretted that “negative coalitions” had been generated, including the one that made Chega “make the PS proposal viable”. The social democrat said he hopes that, within 15 days, Parliament will have a common text on reducing the IRS ready.
“Not even a coffee costs”
In the last few days, Chega had warned that it felt closer to the PS’s proposal than to the Government’s – yesterday considered insufficient from the Left to the Right -, having come to hover over the leaden scenario of the Executive’s diploma. This Wednesday, in the plenary, André Ventura reinforced, warning the AD: “Between you and the Portuguese, we chose the Portuguese”.
Hugo Soares avoided this possible outcome by asking for the government proposal to be sent to the commission, a moment that generated ironic reactions on several benches. The social democrat reacted by saying it was “curious” that those who spoke of “dialogue and consensus” were the same ones who “assured that the commission would be dismissed so that we could have a dialogue”.
Before the votes, PS and Chega argued that the reduction in the IRS planned by the Government is unfair and is far from being a “fiscal shock”. Noting that the reduction will be around two euros for those who earn a thousand euros a month, socialist deputy Sérgio Ávila stressed that this amount “is not enough to pay for a coffee every 15 days”. Ventura reinforced that, in certain areas of Lisbon, “not even a cafe pays”.
The Minister of Finance, Miranda Sarmento, tried to glue Chega to the socialists. He accused Ventura of having “positions close to the PS”, such as the desire that “people who earn 1300 euros net do not have any IRS benefits” because they are “rich”.
This argument was repeated in the response to Sérgio Ávila. Miranda Sarmento said she never used the expression “fiscal shock”, also mentioning that the fiscal relief was designed for an entire legislature and not “for the first week”.
At one point, in order to reject criticism from the various parties, Sarmento said that one cannot take “one step too far”, an expression often used by António Costa when he wanted to appeal to realism. The Government’s Stability Program was made possible thanks to the abstention of the PS.
