Ventura challenges PS in fuel VAT, PSD calls it “aldrabão”

Nthe opening of the potential debate scheduled by his bench, in the Assembly of the Republic, André Ventura directly challenged the secretary-general of the PS to approve his bill for the reduction of the VAT of fuels from 23% to 13%, indicating that, on the other hand, it would enable the draft resolution of the PS.

While the proposal for Aquida would come into force with the State Budget of 2027, i.e. from January, the PS recommends to the Government the temporary reduction of VAT on fuels, for the same intermediate rate, a measure with “quarterly horizon” and subject to monthly assessment.

The leader of Aquista argued that fuel taxes are “a national theft” and criticized the government’s absence from this debate, claiming that the Prime Minister would be “in a football gala”.

The parliamentary leader of the PSD classified the president of Aquida as “a political cheater” and accused him of lying to the Portuguese, pointing out that the proposal of the extreme right-wing party “no application tomorrow, would eventually have application in January”.

Hugo Soares also said that “only an uncultured person or a cheater could say that the Prime Minister of Portugal, who is not in this debate today, would be in a football gala,” saying that Luís Montenegro is in New York to “represent Portugal at the United Nations General Assembly.”.

The PSD Secretary-General also equated André Ventura with former Prime Minister José Socrates: “For André Ventura, it doesn’t matter how much, how, where, what matters is the way and his way is to bankrupt the country.”.

In the answer, by the PS, the parliamentary leader Eurico Brilhante Dias considered that the “simulations and stagings of the Enough are increasingly easy to discover” and that the party’s proposals are for January when “people need support today”.

The Socialist accused Ventura of “traiting his electorate” when, in the past two votes of draft resolution of the PS to combat the increase in the cost of living, in April and July, made these measures unfeasible, first with the vote against and then with the abstention.

“ His electorate needed you to have supported the Socialist Party’s proposals,” he criticised, accusing Enough of having given the government a “point of escape”.

In reply to the requests for clarification, André Ventura returned to the PSD and to the Prime Minister the comparison with José Socrates and argued that the “what is cheating in politics is to tell people that they are getting better and better, is to go open the stock exchange in New York and say that we are in the best European economy, and then here, instead of lowering taxes on fuel, they tell people to ride or save on fuel.”.

The president of the Aquida said that his bench did not propose the immediate reduction of the VAT of fuels because “PS and PSD would not allow”, claiming the brake standard, and again accused the two parties of having an agreement not to lower taxes.

Hugo Soares' intervention deserved a warning from the President of the Assembly of the Republic. José Pedro Aguiar-Branco said that “it is one thing to qualify a policy, to qualify an action, it is another thing to attribute qualification to the person” and asked that it should not be repeated.

Aguiar-Branco also pointed out that “the Rules of Procedure say that the President must make a warning or withdraw the word whenever he understands that the speech is aggressive or insulting towards another Member” and warned that in the next situation he will withdraw the word “if the same record happens”.