Montenegro responds to Marcelo and guarantees: “We are going to be a PSD plus PPD” | PSD

The president of the Social Democrats, Luís Montenegro, assured this Monday that the “PSD will be more PPD” and considered the “greatest compliment” that can be given to the party and to himself the statement in which the President of the Republic defined the current prime minister as an “urban-rural” person.

At the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the PSD that took place this Monday at Estufa Fria, in Lisbon, the prime minister took advantage of the celebration of the party’s anniversaryFounded on May 6, 1974 by Sá Carneiro, Magalhães Mota and Pinto Balsemão, the PPD/PSD to remember that, as soon as he assumed leadership of the party, he guaranteed that the PSD would be “a PSD identified with its social-democratic roots” . And ensure: “We are going to be a PSD plus PPD and that is what we are today.” In 1976, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) became PPD/PSD (Social Democratic Party).

Luís Montenegro said he was “very comfortable” with what was said about the party and, regarding its leadership, stressed that “politics serves to leave no one behind”.

“Even if this raises great debates about the origins, about the matrix, the idiosyncrasy, of the party, even of the leadership, I want to say-you: it’s not really a question of being more urban or more rural. It is a concept of valuing the person in all their dimension and expression, of valuing the condition of each person with everything they have to put at the service of everyone. Yes, that is my and our conception, if we recognize this conception today I want to say that this is the greatest compliment that can be given to PPD/PSD and its leader”, highlighted Montenegro, after President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that the current prime minister “comes from a deep country, urban-ruralwith rural behaviors”, considering this to be the party’s matrix.

The former President of the Republic and former leader of the PSD, Cavaco Silva, also defended, in an interview with PÚBLICO, that what distinguishes the party “It’s interclassism.”​

In a speech also punctuated by several references to the history of the party and democracy, the social democratic leader stated that the PSD was always at the “front line” of those who contributed most to the country’s development.

“We never wavered”, he said, considering that “we were always on the right side” and pointing to the 25th of November as the date defining the type of regime: “We did not want the liberating night to result in a morning of political extremism.”

Housing “next”

Luís Montenegro, in line with what he had already done, insisted that a Government that had just spent 30 days in office could not yet have taken all the decisions that the executive that preceded it had not taken, despite having governed for eight years.

After Alexandre Poço, leader of the JSD, made an intervention very focused on the housing crisis, and in particular on how this problem affects young people, the prime minister guaranteed that the Government’s response “is coming soon”. Montenegro promised for “the next few weeks several responses” to the problems highlighted by the deputy who leads the young social democrats.

Maintaining the political tone of recent weeks, in particular the way in which the opposition, and in particular PS and Chega, approved, against the Government, proposals on the IRS and the end of tolls on the ex-SCUT, the Prime Minister questioned: “ How come Chega ran a campaign saying that it was absolutely necessary to run with the socialists and now, they are a kind of ‘enough-me-that’”, he stated, before accusing the PS of “collapsing Chega”.

The prime minister also defended that the opposition parties are only concerned with an “electoral revenge” and “behind-the-scenes political games”.

Montenegro also spoke about the negotiation rounds between the Government and the security forces, judicial officials, health professionals or teachers to attack the previous executive again: “If the issues were resolved, there would be no need for negotiations.”