Lisbon, Sept. 30, 2024 (Lusa) — The governing party (PSD)'s parliamentary leader asked on Monday if "it's that difficult" to reach an agreement on a budget that lowers taxes, accusing the PS of deceiving the government and the country about the possibility of negotiating measures.
Hugo Soares was speaking at the opening session of the PSD/CDS-PP joint parliamentary days, which have as their theme "A State Budget to solve people's problems".
"What the hell, is it so difficult to agree on lower taxes? Is there anyone in the country who doesn't agree with reducing taxes?" he asked.
Hugo Soares said, "only on a whim, or out of electoral and party tactics, or out of a lack of ability to put the national interest above any small interest or party interest, is it possible to imagine" that there won't be agreement on reducing taxes on the youngest and on companies.
"There's no way there won't be an understanding as long as there's responsibility, common sense and a sense of state," he said.
On these two points - which the PS has presented as the two measures it doesn't accept being included in the next budget to make it viable - the PSD parliamentary leader also accused the Socialists of having been "deceiving the country" and the government, "creating the expectation that there was a chance of negotiating the two measures in the government's programme".
The PSD's parliamentary leader argued that when the PSD said before the summer that it rejected the government's proposed youth income tax and company tax reduction models, the government showed, in August and part of September, "flexibility to model these measures".
"I defy anyone to demonstrate when, for a month and a half, how or where, the PS said there was no chance of negotiation or modelling," he said.
On Friday, after the first meeting with the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, on the budget, the PS secretary-general, Pedro Nuno Santos, said that he rejects the document with the changes to the IRS Jovem and IRC proposed by the government or any modelling of these measures.
Despite considering that "there are more and more signs of inflexibility on the part of the opposition", the PSD parliamentary leader called for "modesty and responsibility" so that "everything that can still be done to save a political crisis" and so that the budget for 2025 can be approved "is not jeopardised by media noise or party political combat".
Hugo Soares also emphasised that the budget for 2025 is not yet known and defended the fact that "the three main measures to reduce tax revenue were the ones chosen" and approved in parliament, referring to how the income tax was reduced, the elimination of tolls on some old toll-paying motorways and the lowering of VAT on electricity.
"Curiously, the two parties that have already made up a substantial part of the 2025 state budget in parliament are the ones that have shown the most resistance - not to say total inflexibility - to making the budget viable," he criticised.
Moments before, the CDS-PP parliamentary leader, Paulo Núncio, pointed out that "there is no memory of a first budget from a government with a relative majority that has not been made viable in Portugal" and warned that the rejection of the 2025 budget proposal "will have very serious consequences for all the country's mayors".
"And so, for the sake of the national interest, I would like to appeal here today to the secretary-general of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos. And the appeal is very direct: put the national interest before party interests. That's what the sense of state demands," he appealed.
Paulo Núncio recalled that "that's what the PSD and CDS-PP did when they were in opposition and made possible countless budgets presented by PS relative majority governments". He said that today it is the Socialists who are called upon to "take political responsibility".
"Leaving the budget aside would mean leaving the PS with no sense of responsibility and I'm sure that in that scenario the Portuguese would not fail to chastise such political irresponsibility on the part of the PS," he said.
The centrist also criticised far-right party Chega, saying that "the Portuguese don't need oppositions that constantly zigzag and take political positions that only last a couple of hours"
"We welcome the prime minister's courageous stance. The government is responding to the inflexibility and radicalism of the PS with moderation and dialogue. To the permanent inconstancy of Chega, the Democratic Alliance is a stability factor," he said.
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