The deputy general secretary of the PS estimated on Monday that the SDP would make a “monumental somersault” tonight if it presented a tax cut proposal, accusing the social democratic leader of inconsistency and “pure political opportunism.”
Speaking to the Lusa agency, Joao Torres believes that if Luis Montenegro presents a proposal to lower the IRS this Monday evening at the Algarve party in Pontale, it will be an “acrobatic exercise” and a “monumental somersault”.
“What we have seen over the past few weeks is a complete change and a very significant discrepancy between what the SDP and its leader stand for today and what the SDP had the opportunity to present to the Portuguese in their electoral program in the January elections. Elections of 2022,” he stressed.
João Torres mentioned that in this election campaign, the SDP “actively and militantly” defended the IRC cut, only proposing an IRS cut in 2025 or 2026, as opposed to the PS which “prioritized continuing to cut the tax rate”.
“There is another curiosity: one of the great strategists of the SDP’s electoral program in the legislative elections of 2022 was precisely the current parliamentary leader of the SDP,” Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, one of the right-hand men of the then party leader Rui Rio. .
Thus, the Deputy General Secretary of the PS accused the SDP of not advocating “structural cuts in the IRS” and is doing so now only “out of pure political opportunism.”
“The SPD is required to stop being a vacuum of ideas and so it would be very helpful and very timely for the SPD to be able to come up with really innovative, fair proposals that don’t jeopardize funding, important measures to assess families’ disposable income,” he said. .
Asked if the financing of these measures would be threatened by a significant reduction in the IRS, the Socialist leader replied: “We’ll see what the SDP protects.”
João Torres said that “it is on the PS that the Portuguese can count on lowering the IRS”, stressing that “this has been happening since the end of 2015”, when the first government led by António Costa came to power.
“We are going to follow this path – as has already been presented by both the prime minister and the finance minister – of responsible cuts in the IRS to make it easier for Portuguese families, and in particular the youngest ones,” he said.
The socialist general secretary also defended that under the PS governments there had been an “increase in the average family income” and “measures such as the start of free kindergarten attendance”, the Childhood Guarantee or the “More Housing” program had been implemented.
“Over the past few months and years, the priorities of the PSD have really changed. The PS has established itself as a party that defends the growth of incomes, wages, pensions. (…) The SDP has been against raising, for example, the national minimum wage, and has always put IRS cuts at the bottom of its list of priorities,” he criticized.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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