Rui Rio says Portugal “is worse” and with “more problems to solve”

Rui Rio participated, on Wednesday, at the conference “2016-2026. Is Portugal better?", organized under the 10th anniversary of the Economic Journal.

The Social Democrat began his speech at the event to answer the question above, shooting that “the country is worse.”.

“There is a deep discontent of people. There is growing inefficiency in society. There are more and more problems to solve,” he said, considering that “there is a radicalization of politics and society as a consequence”.

“ Politics is football, with all the stupidity of football that cannot see the view of the opponent, is being transmitted to politics”, he added.

At the event, which took place in the Customs Building in Porto, the former PSD leader also defended that “we have a quality of life far below what we should have. The growth of the minimum wage, rising in the fast way that it went up, brought the average wage to such a low level that it explains the lack of productivity of our economy, but of course there are a number of positive numbers.”.

As a solution, the former mayor of Porto suggested that a “reform in the management, rationalization and optimization of public expenditure and in the effectiveness of the response to the citizen” should be made, and also advocated a greater focus on regionalization to achieve a greater “optimization of public expenditure”.

Among the topics discussed, Rui Rio also defended the need for a reform of the political system, as well as the judicial system, considering that the latter “is the biggest failure of the post April 25”.