Lisbon, July 14, 2025 (Lusa) - The parliamentary leader of the Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) on Monday accused the opposition Socialists (PS) of being the first to break the consensus between the two parties on the Nationality Law and described PS leader José Luís Carneiro's position on TAP as ‘tragicomic’.
At the opening of the PSD/CDS-PP caucus debates, which run until Tuesday in Évora, Hugo Soares assured that his party will seek "the broadest possible consensus" to approve the amendments to the Nationality Law, which will be debated in parliament in September, and rejected the criticism of the PS, which has accused the Government of falling into the hands of the far right on this issue.
"It was the PS that ended the consensus on the Nationality Law in Portugal, not us. The latest revisions to the Nationality Law were made by the PS alone or with the extreme left in Portugal, abandoning the historic consensus it had with the Social Democrats (PSD)," he accused.
Hugo Soares also levelled harsh criticism at the PS leader, José Luís Carneiro, who argued that the state should return the €3.2 billion injected into TAP to taxpayers, following the announcement of the reprivatisation of 49.9% of the company by the current PSD/CDS-PP executive.
"To hear the leader of the PS plead that with the privatisation of 49.9% of TAP's share capital we can recover the €3.2 billion they injected into it is, at the very least, tragicomic," he accused.
On the one hand, the PSD parliamentary leader argued that the PS should start by apologising to the Portuguese people.
"Because the decision to invest, to put, to pour €3.2 billion into TAP was made by the PS and with the full support of the former leader of the PS, whom the current one supported," he said, in reference to Pedro Nuno Santos.
On the other hand, he also considered José Luís Carneiro's statement to be comical.
"Demanding that this privatisation recover the €3.2 billion they deposited there meant saying that, roughly speaking, the PS valued TAP in its entirety at around €6.4 billion, i.e. one, two or three times more than Air France," he criticised.
"One of two things: either it is political combat for political combat's sake, without criteria or rigour, or it is a clear demonstration of incompetence on the part of the leader of Portugal's Socialist Party,’ he accused.
During caucus debate sessions taking place in the week of the state of the nation debate, Hugo Soares took stock of what he considers to be better in the country than a year ago, including the situation of state schools, security forces and services, but also health, among others.
"A year ago, as much as it pains many to admit, we had more accident and emergency departments closed, we had a worse national health service, longer waiting times in accident and emergency departments (...) There is also more news about accident and emergency departments being closed because they are now published in advance so that people don't turn up at closed hospital doors. That is the only reason why there is more news about accident and emergency departments being closed," he argued.
Hugo Soares also pointed out some commitments that he believes the PSD/CDS-PP Government has already fulfilled after only one month in office, including, in addition to the partial privatisation of TAP, a reduction in income tax, but also a ban on mobile phones for younger school pupils and a review of the citizenship programme.
"We have no ideological complexes. What we do not accept is that state schools should be used to determine specific ideologies and a specific orientation. We are for freedom," he said.
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