Urgent hearing of former Finance Minister Fernando Medina approved

The Budget and Finance Committee approved this Wednesday the urgent hearing of former Finance Minister Fernando Medina, current PS deputy, to give explanations on the reduction of public debt.

The hearing was requested by the CDS and had votes in favor from all parliamentary groups presentincluding the PS.

Last week, at the party congress, the CDS parliamentary leader announced this request accusing the previous governmentof which Fernando Medina was Minister of Finance, of having made an “artificial reduction” of debt with “pension money”.

Paulo Núncio said that the Technical Budget Support Unit (UTAO) “warned that the debt reduction carried out by the socialist Government in 2023 was merely artificial” and that “it was only made on account of money from the Social Security Financial Stabilization Fund and the Caixa Geral de Aposentações”.

Paulo Núncio considered this “extremely serious” situation and that the former minister has to answer to Parliament.

Last week, UTAO warned that the reduction of public debt in 2023 was “artificial” and that there are cases in which financial management options were conditioned by guidelines from the past Government.

O public debt ratio stood at 99.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 and in nominal terms it decreased by 9.3 billion euros compared to the previous year, to 263.1 billion euros.

Also this Wednesday, the hearing of the current Minister of Finance in Parliament was approved. Joaquim Miranda Sarmento will be heard at the Budget and Finance Committee.