Government has “folga” budget to approve PS proposals

O secretary-General of the Socialist Party argued, this Thursday, September 17, that the government must approve measures that meet the needs of families facing “very difficult circumstances” in the face of increasing the cost of living in Portugal.

José Luís Carneiro recalled that already in March he had warned that the financial crisis that is being experienced – at the expense of two wars – could be “during”, so he criticized the Government for not taking measures to alleviate the lives of the Portuguese.

“ The needs to which the government wanted to respond [with the measures it presented last week] left out 2 million more vulnerable workers, with children and young people, and which are families who are living in very difficult circumstances,” he began by stating, recalling that family allowances and support for companies in the context of energy consumption are some of the measures that could be taken.

“The government should have taken action yesterday”, said the socialist, referring that it will fail any government proposal that includes measures to be implemented only in January.

The PS leader considered that there was no reason not to help families and said that the “Government has slack” to implement measures “thanks to the increase in unplanned revenue, due to inflation and the increase in revenue from fuel taxes.”.

“ In our accounts, between what you announced and the money you earned, there are EUR 400 million left,” he said, reinforcing that the PS’s proposals are “sustainable at budgetary level”.

It should be recalled that the increase in the cost of living has been one of the most striking themes of the start of the legislative session, and the parliamentary left-wings have criticised the government's action on rising inflation and rising cost of living this Wednesday.

PS asked for parliamentary debate

The PS also scheduled for Friday an urgent parliamentary debate on the cost of living, arguing that the government “must act” to respond to what the socialists consider to be the “central theme” of Portuguese life.

Eurico Brilhante Dias argued that the PS “has been giving centrality to the question of cost of living”.

“ And that is what we are doing, it is telling the government that it must act, which the government has clearly not done,” he criticized.

The socialist parliamentary leader also said that the party will again insist on measures to halt the increase in the cost of living through a draft resolution that will be debated on September 25 and that it has proposals that the PS has already taken twice to parliament and that have been rejected.

“The PS presented a draft resolution, number 1221, which will be discussed on September 25, which in its fundamental structure is identical to what we presented in April, and then it was discussed in April and July,” he said.

Eurico Brilhante Dias said he expected “to build a majority in parliament that tells the government that it has to act on these factors that are fundamental”.

“ The Portuguese are at maximum cost of living over the last three years, so the Assembly cannot be insensitive. So far we have not had the opportunity to have a majority because the far right and the right joined to fail the initiatives of the PS ", condemned.

[News updated at 12:44 p.m.]