The president of the PSD and prime minister today ruled out the possibility of governing under a twelfth-month regime if the State Budget for 2025 is “rejected” by the Assembly of the Republic.
“I would like to express, by way of conclusion, a thought that I believe His Excellency the President of the Republic has made very clear: we are confident in its approval regarding the Budget because we are aware that the twelfths are not a solution,” he stated.
Luís Montenegro was speaking at the opening speech of the PSD National Council, called to formalize the postponement of the party’s 42nd Congress, postponed due to the serious fires last week.
Hours after the head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said that “if there is no Budget” for 2025, there will be a “political and economic crisis”, the prime minister seconded the President’s message, and refusing to be using any “blackmail or political pressure”, he left a warning.
“Everyone should be aware that we have had two legislative elections in a row and that, if there were to be a third, it would be the third in three years,” he said.
Therefore, he considered, “it is essential and imperative that, in the coming days and weeks, everyone has a sense of responsibility, everyone has a sense of State, everyone has the ability to put the collective interest ahead of any other more individualized interest”.
Montenegro recalled the context of war and uncertainty in Europe and around the world, the 2026 deadline for implementing the funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan and even the need to ensure “a rapid recovery” for those who suffered losses in the recent fires.
“This is the context of social, economic and political life in Portugal. And it is in this context that everyone must demonstrate the sense of collective interest that is the basis of their political intervention. This is neither political blackmail nor political pressure. This is simply a democratic demand”, he argued.
The Prime Minister argued that the PSD and the Government do not want to “decide for anyone or even interfere in the specific decision that the other parties will take”.
“If the national interest, in the opinion of these parties, is to reject the budget, they must take responsibility for rejecting the Budget. If the national interest, in the view of other parties, is that we should have a State Budget in force in 2025, they must naturally take the initiatives and steps that can contribute to achieving this outcome,” he said.
On the part of the Government and the PSD, he added, “the door is open”.
“We will not speak impulsively, based on our moods, I repeat, we will have a lot of patience, all the patience that Portuguese people deserve, so that we can prioritize the national interest over any other interest, even if it is our partisan interest. It seems absolutely unavoidable to me that the interpretation of the national interest, of the collective interest, must lead to the approval of a State budget for 2025”, he argued.
Still, he warned, the Government and the PSD have a limit in the negotiations of the document: the fulfillment of “the commitments made in the electoral campaign with the voters” and the commitment to the Assembly of the Republic and the parties represented in it “that did not reject the program” of the executive.
In his speech, much shorter than usual (only twenty minutes), and which was preceded by a minute of silence for the victims of the fires, Montenegro did not address any specific party, but left messages for his political opponents, after hours marked by exchanges of statements with the general secretary of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos.
“In public debate, we see many leaders, many political leaders, constantly fueling small issues, very small issues, that are of little or no interest to people, petty intrigue. In short, positions that are sometimes as incomprehensible as they are childish and immature,” he said.
In contrast, Montenegro argued that since April the executive “has been governing, continues to govern” and remains “where it has always been” in terms of availability and methodology regarding the next Budget.
On Sunday, the first meeting was scheduled between the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the Secretary General of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, to discuss the 2025 State Budget, which will take place on Friday, at 3:00 pm, after an exchange of accusations between the two parties, via statement, about the difficulty of agreeing on the date of the meeting, which the socialists demanded to be made public.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
