PS accuses Government of “strategy of conflictuality” in Lisbon

O PS accused the government today of being in a “strategy of conflict” with the socialists rather than talking about the party’s proposals, ensuring that the measure of public guarantee for the lease “is considered” and not irresponsible.

In statements to journalists in the Parliament in Lisbon, the parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, was surprised by the argument invoked today by Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento that a “complete and unlimited” public guarantee for landlords covering late rents would be “a fiscal irresponsibility”.

“ Of course, the PS proposal for 2027 is a well-considered proposal, and I repeat, it respects the budgetary balance with which the proposal for a State Budget has reached this Parliament,” he stressed.

From the socialist perspective, the government led by Luís Montenegro “is clearly unsolved” and “in a strategy of conflict, in particular with the Socialist Party”.

“He is fleeing his responsibilities. Nor does it create the appropriate context for dialogue with the Socialist Party because the appropriate context would be to look at the Socialist Party's proposals and to dialogue. He maintains his intransigence with the Law of Income, in which he awoke with the Arrive a law of evictions ", criticized.

Eurico Brilhante Dias warned that next year the PS will continue to “fiscalize the Government” and will not let it “run away from its responsibilities”, which is what the executive accuses of trying to do.

The parliamentary leader of the PS also accused the Government of “not having a housing policy” and, on the increase in the cost of living, not having “proposals to reduce the burden that the Portuguese have been bearing”.

“The government when it looks at the opposition, in particular the responsible opposition that is an alternative, that proposes coherent measures that respect the budget balance, promotes conflictuality, promotes intrigue, promotes, above all, its unaccountability. We will not let this government get away,” he said.

For the head of the PS, the Minister of Finance today made “an additional heavy contribution to this escape from his responsibilities”.

“The Government yesterday took a set of preventive measures that can always be considered, considered and whether they were not, in some cases, excessive, particularly in the northern region, but there is one thing that became very clear in the eyes of Portuguese: in January 2026, the central region, in particular the district of Leiria, was abandoned at the decisive moment,” he criticized.

Brilliant Dias regretted that there are still measures that are not being complied with following the bad weather of the beginning of the year.

“In 2027, the Socialist Party will continue to monitor what is an obligation and a commitment of the Government to the PS: it is that this State Budget is made possible with the abstention of the Socialist Party because the Government took over with the Socialist Party that did not leave the region centre and, in particular, the territories affected by the storms behind. This is what we will monitor in 2027 ", warned.

The Minister of State and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, today considered that a public guarantee “complete and unlimited” for landlords covering late rents would be “a fiscal irresponsibility” with “incalculable costs”.

“ A guarantee on income would basically be a ‘free riding’ budget with incalculable costs,” said the minister during the 5th edition of CNN Portugal International Summit, in Cascais, when asked about the socialist proposal for a “public guarantee mechanism to provide security to owners who want to place their properties on the rental market”.