Government accuses PS and Chegu of political conspiracy to undermine it

This Thursday, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs accused the PS and Chegu of colluding politically by forming a “negative coalition” in Parliament to undermine the government, as well as acting with fiscal irresponsibility.

Pedro Duarte voiced this position after Parliament approved in plenary session as a whole the PS project to abolish tolls on old SCUT (free to user) highways. The PS bill was voted for by Chega, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN, while the PSD and CDS-PP disapproved and the Liberal Initiative abstained.

This PS project, estimated by the executive led by Luis Montenegro, if approved in the final global vote in its current form, will have a cost of 180 million euros in 2025, with a total value reaching 1.5 billion euros at the end of the concession. conditions in 2040.

“Today we are surprised to witness a new parliamentary model in which it appears that the oppositions, namely PS and Chega, are uniting in a negative coalition to question and undermine the activities of the government,” charged the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

According to Pedro Duarte, after what happened in parliament during the vote on tolls in the former SCUT, it seems that what “unites the PS and Chegu is the desire to block and undermine the actions of the government.”

“We all in the country know what the expression “no is said” by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro means. [em relação ao Chega] and followed by the government and majority of the Democratic Alliance (AD). But for the PS there are no boundaries, no criteria in its coalitions and parliamentary agreements and no values ​​to follow?” he asked.

But the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs went even further with his questions.

“If PS and Chega really intend to take over the country, what reason do they have for not doing so before the Portuguese? It would be clearer and more transparent for everyone. If not, if they don’t have the desire to unite to govern the country, then what is the reason for not allowing the government to govern?”

Pedro Duarte then accused, especially the PS, of “deep budgetary irresponsibility in the matter of SCUT, since the head of the PSD/CDS-PP estimates that the socialist bill now approved will cost 180 million euros in terms of cost in 2025.”

“But the problem is that in just one year it will not have an impact. We estimate that by the end of the former SCUT toll road concession period, in 2040, it will be worth 1.5 billion euros,” he added.