Fernando Medina’s hearing was requested by the CDS-PP and had votes in favor from all parliamentary groups present, including the PS
The Budget and Finance Committee approved 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-PP and had votes in favor from all parliamentary groups present, including the PS.
Last week, at the party congress, the parliamentary leader of the CDS-PP announced this request, accusing the previous government, of which Fernando Medina was Minister of Finance, of having made an “artificial reduction” of the 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 situation “of enormous gravity” and that the former minister has to answer to parliament.
Last week, UTAO warned that the reduction in public debt in 2023 was “artificial” and that there are cases in which financial management options were conditioned by guidelines from the past Government.
The public debt ratio stood at 99.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 and in nominal terms decreased by 9.3 billion euros compared to the previous year, to 263.1 billion euros.
