Luàs Montenegro vows to do “everything to give Portugal a new governmentâ€
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Loading... - james benjamin
- 05 Jul 2022
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The 40th congress of the PSD (main opposition) party ended today in Porto with new leader Luís Montenegro vowing to do “everything to give Portugal a new government”.
With members of his team including Lisbon mayor Carlos Moedas, Montenegro is powered-up and promising change: no more lukewarm opposition; no more crises; no more ‘stink of old age’, of a worn-out executive stumbling about from one crisis to the next; this is time for taking PS Socialists head on.
Montenegro outlined seven main priorities for his leadership: The “special pertinence” of the first being the “combat the famine of life”. Families are beginning to despair, he said, because money is not simply “not giving them everything, it is not giving them the essentials”.
Health comes next. “If the government is not guilty for the war, this cannot be said for the state of the Health (service)”, he said – running through all the well-versed issues of ‘lack of doctors, closure of casualty units, long waiting lists for consultations – and even longer waits for surgeries. It’s time for “reform, restructuring and reorganising for the SNS health service”.
Third priority is to reduce taxes. “With asphyxiating tax burdens we neither have a middle classes or a social elevator (…) The behaviour of the State in terms of taxes is absolutely immoral,” he suggested – while his fourth priority is to “retain talent” (meaning qualified young people), again by more attractive taxation.
Luís Montenegro’s plans also involve creating a programme to attract immigrants (bearing in mind the country faces a “structural problem” of plummeting birthrates, which will only get worse without ‘new citizens’), and a pact for digital, energetic and environmental transition.
The 7th and final priority is to call a halt on plans for a referendum in 2024 on ‘regionalisation’ (on the basis that it makes no sense in the current global context).
The PSD is a party with very simple focus, stressed Montenegro. “We do not have existential problems; ideological schisms, we are not interested in sterile conversations of Left and Right, of green lines or red. Our orientation is simple: the citizen. The person”. Read More...
