The opposition considers the program useless, and the government says it presented the document simply out of respect

This Wednesday, the opposition criticized the Stability Program for the period 2024 to 2028, with the BE and PCP deeming the document “useless” and “outdated” and the government saying it only introduced it out of respect for parliament.

During the debate on the Stability Program (SP) for 2024-2028 in the Assembly of the Republic, the parties that presented projects rejecting the document sent by the government to parliament on April 15 pointed to the macroeconomic scenario embedded in the invariant policy. and lack of information about executive branch policy measures.

BE coordinator Mariana Mortagua considered the program “absolutely useless for debate” because the economic framework did not take into account the impact of measures envisaged by the executive branch.

This position was shared by PCP deputy António Filipe, who called the program “useless” and asked Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento whether he was going to “announce a magic strike” or “use the excuse that he is a bad payer.”

Socialist MP António Mendonça Mendes accused the government of proposing a program to reduce the “tax burden three times lower” than the one advocated by the PS, after the tax burden was the “alpha and omega” of the Democratic Alliance (AD). .

In turn, Livre leader Rui Tavares questioned the preparation for governance with which the AD presented itself in the election campaign, adding that the budget surplus “is the result of the sacrifice of all of us” and “the adjustments that have been made by the Portuguese family.”

Liberal Initiative MP Mario Amorim Lopez said the country needed to grow and that “this is the only way to increase wages and pensions”, and that the PS had left “a country in a dead end” whose solution could not be “a country stalling for time”. on the.”

PAN representative Ines Souza Real expressed concern that the Stability Program does not include environmental issues and called on the government to pay attention to this aspect.

Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento stressed in his initial speech that due to the reform of European rules, the government can only send two tables for the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) to the European Commission, without being obliged to send a stability report. .

The government official indicated that the stability programs would be replaced by medium-term structural plans, negotiations on which would begin with Brussels at the end of July and would be sent out “at the end of September, mid-October.”

This position was supported by CDS-PP deputy Paulo Nuncio after criticism from the parties.