The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs assured this Saturday that the Government “is available” to “negotiate and give in” on the State Budget proposal and warned that the socialists have “increased responsibilities” in this negotiation and that “there can be no childishness”.
“The Government is very willing to reach a consensus on the Budget. It is very important to us that the country has a Budget, that the Government’s proposal is approved. We know that we do not have an absolute majority in Parliament and, therefore, we are available, more than available, we are interested in talking, negotiating and giving in where necessary so that we can have a Budget approved”, said Pedro Duarte, in Santo Tirso, on the sidelines of a visit to that municipality in the Porto district as president of the PSD/Porto District Political Committee.
However, he warned, there are limits: “It is obvious, I think everyone also understands, when I say to give in where necessary there is a limit that is very simple, which is when we let the Government’s project have its way. It makes no sense if we stop reviewing ourselves in the Budget.”
“But apart from these structural guidelines, the Government is very open to hearing from other parties. What is really happening with the PS is that we are not familiar with these proposals and, therefore, we are waiting. This is not even a criticism, but we are waiting for the PS to submit its proposals so that we can evaluate them and, as long as they are reasonable, the Government is certainly open to it,” he said.
Pedro Duarte, however, left a warning to the PS and the socialist leader, Pedro Nuno Santos: “”I hope there will be responsibility, a sense of responsibility from the opposition, namely from the largest opposition party. The PS has responsibility for the state the country is in, it was Government until very recently, it has the added responsibility of understanding that we are at a critical moment and there can be no childishness or playing with the lives of the Portuguese people”.
When asked about the consequences of the State Budget proposal being rejected, the Minister responsible for Parliamentary Affairs warned that they would be “very negative” and at a decisive time for the country: “It would be very negative, we are at a crucial moment, for example in terms of investments in the Recovery and Resilience Plan, it is a decisive year next year and if we do not have the tool available it will imply more delays and we will probably lose a lot of community funds”.
“The Government has already managed to pacify the country by reaching an agreement with many professional sectors, several careers in the Civil Service and all of this would be affected. And, also, we have the prospect of having the Economy grow so that people have more money in their pockets and we can all live better”, he argued.
“The economy would be greatly affected, first and foremost by international investment. An investor who is thinking of bringing money into the country, if he sees that we are going to have a political crisis, a government that does not have a tool to work with, such as a budget, will probably rethink its investment, and this would be very negative for the country,” he warned.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
