The leader of the Liberal Initiative (IL) said this Saturday that the government’s “graceful state” is over, believing that the promised financial shock is just a “touch-up” and accused the SDP of starting to have “problems with transparency and integrity.” “.
“The state of grace is over [do Governo] after 48 hours, because somehow now we have a government, the PSD, trying not to clarify this issue,” said Rui Rocha from Matosinhos, Porto district, while participating in an event with European liberals on the European elections
According to Rui Rocha, who emphasized that since August 2023 the IL has indicated that the PSD’s target in financial matters is “very small”, he believed that what the government program promised and what was already promised during the election campaign, “This is not a financial shock is a fiscal adjustment.”
Rui Rocha stressed that he asked the government questions about the IRS aid of 1.500 million euros, which the Prime Minister mentioned this Thursday, at the beginning of the debate on the government program, and that Luis Montenegro did not clarify.
“The Prime Minister didn’t want to elaborate, and then Representative Bernardo Blanco of Illinois asked Treasury Secretary Miranda Sarmento how it was, and he didn’t want to answer either. The SDP has a huge responsibility here, she wanted to tell the country that she caused a financial shock, allowing this image to pass by, never clarifying when we talk about budget adjustments,” he noted.
The Liberal president also compared the government of Montenegro with the government of António Costa: “I can only compare this attempt to convey an image that does not correspond to reality with another situation that occurred some time ago, when António Costa wanted to convince pensioners that he was giving them an extraordinary increase , at the same time he tried to cut pensions by a billion euros,” he said.
“Unfortunately, at the very beginning of the coalition government we are in a very similar situation, there was no effort or desire to clarify the Portuguese language, and so if there is no effort or desire, it is because we do not want to clarify.” .
Also on the sidelines of the same event, the former leader of IL and the head of the party list in the European elections, Cotrim de Figueiredo, not only considered that the current government is obliged to give the country an explanation, but also identified problems of “substance, transparency.” and that “Problems with decency are already beginning there,” as a warning about the PS remained.
“Listen to more IL today, now, because the PS propaganda machine has already entered the field to try to say that the tax reform that PSD is proposing is only a sixth of what PS proposed, giving the impression that it is less than what the PS proposed,” he said.
In conclusion: “No, this is only a seventh of what the PS offered, but it is more, no matter what.”
In an interview with RTP this Friday, Finance Minister Miranda Sarmento said that the government’s promised cut to the IRS is “more ambitious” than the measure in force from the beginning of 2024, but specified that it would be around 200 million euros.
Thus, Miranda Sarmento clarified that the 1.500 million euros of IRS relief mentioned by the Prime Minister this Thursday, at the beginning of the debate on the government program, will not be added to the approximately 1.300 million euros of IRS cuts registered in the state budget for 2024 and already It entered into force.