Pedro Nuno Santos accuses AD of wanting to abdicate for the equivalent of PRR in four years

This Saturday, the Secretary General of the Social Democratic Party accused the Democratic Alliance of predicting a “hole” in public accounts of 23.5 billion euros over four years, equivalent to a second PRR, warning that austerity policies would follow this program.

Speaking at a rally at the Expo Center in Viseu, Pedro Nuno Santos said the next elections on March 10 will be a choice between “a stable and responsible government” or “a government that presents the country with a financial adventure” and “a government that will present the country with a financial adventure.” irresponsible budget.”

According to data presented by the Socialist leader, the program of the coalition consisting of PSD, SDS-NP and PPM will result in the country losing an amount equivalent to 23.5 billion euros in four years: “16.5 tax revenues, with some other measures expenses.”

Pedro Nuno Santos compared this cost, which he called a “breakthrough”, with the cost of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which he said was originally supposed to cost 16.6 billion euros but is now 22.2 billion.

“What AD is proposing to lose in four years is a second PRR,” he charged, adding that the PRR “pays for retraining schools, it pays for health centers, new and requalified, it pays for houses, supporting companies.”

“We need capital to invest, not to destroy tax revenues and fiscal space by putting the state at risk,” he said.

The PS general secretary continued to defend that AD’s “fiscal irresponsibility” has austerity as the “other side of the coin.”

“Let no one be mistaken: after a program of fiscal irresponsibility, a program that will cost the state 23.5 billion euros over four years, what happens next is devastation, withering and degradation of public services,” he said.

According to Pedro Nuno Santos, it is “impossible to have everything at the same time” and “there is no place” where €16.5 billion in tax revenues can be abandoned and social spending increased.

“But this is an irresponsible project that AD and the rest of the right should present to Portugal. It is a choice between a stable and responsible government that wants to move forward, wants economic and social progress, and a government that promises everything, promises things that cannot be achieved, and will ultimately affect and reach the same people as always: the people and those who works,” he said.

The PS general secretary accused the right of not having a solution for economic development and added that “dark times are coming, with major European economies experiencing a decline in economic growth.”

“What is required is caution, caution. And the Portuguese know that the PS, which is the party of social and economic progress, is also a refuge of economic and social stability. People can trust PS,” he said.

Pedro Nuno Santos said the PS was proud of the last eight years of socialist rule and called for a fight against “those who always pretend that Portugal has not managed to get out of the curve, that Portugal has not moved forward.”

“When you say nothing has been achieved, you do not disrespect the PS government, you do not respect the entire Portuguese people, all the workers, all the businessmen who have helped Portugal move forward in recent years,” he said.

Establishing a distinction with the AD, Pedro Nuno Santos said that the PS looks “completely differently” at the interior of the country, accusing the coalition of being unwilling to dismantle the former SCUT and of having “done nothing” to conclude IP3.

After this, the socialist leader considered it necessary to fight the “discourse of collapse” in the SNA, believing that his goal was “to force the state to finance the private health sector.”

Despite admitting that “all is not well” at SNS, Pedro Nuno Santos claims that just days ago SNS demonstrated that it is at the “cutting edge of technology” when the first liver transplant using robotic surgery was performed in Europe. at Curry Cabral Hospital.

“Make no mistake: we must stop them all together – AD, IL and Chega – if we want to save SNS in Portugal,” he said.

Before Pedro Nuno Santos, the head of the PS list from Viseu, Elsa Pais, left a warning to young people who intend to vote for the far right, asking them not to return to the days of the Estado Novo, when women could not vote, “boys had to go to an unjust war”, and most young people were not educated “because there was one education for the poor and another for the rich.”

In turn, the president of the PS district federation, José Ruy Cruz, accused Luis Montenegro of being “the representative of austerity in parliament” and asked Pedro Nuno Santos that, if he forms a government, a college of medicine be built in the district, and also an energy recovery plant treating solid waste and a large dam at Moimenta da Beira.