Pedro Nuno Santos says the choice is between a welfare state or a transition to a liberal state.

The General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party said this Sunday that in the legislative elections the main choice is to maintain the welfare state or move to a liberal state, and warned that the AD program would lead to austerity in the long term.

These positions were outlined by Pedro Nuno Santos during his last political speech at a lunchtime rally in Matosinhos, which the socialists said attracted about 2,000 people.

At the end of his speech, the Socialist leader tried to dramatize what is at stake in the early legislative elections on March 10.

“Fighting for Portugal is not a choice, but an obligation; defending Portugal from right-wing illusionists is not an option, but a duty; Defending the National Health Service (NHS) from those who want to hand it over to the private sector is not a duty. a choice, but an obligation,” he said.

According to the PS secretary general, on March 10, “the Portuguese will choose whether they want to maintain the welfare state or whether they want to move to a liberal state.”

“We have a responsibility to defend Portugal, to defend the social state, to defend the achievements of April in the year when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the revolution. Now there are us and the Portuguese, there are no middlemen,” he added, in a new critical allusion to television commentators.

In the opening part of his speech, Pedro Nuno Santos reiterated that the electoral program proposed by the AD (Democratic Alliance), if implemented, would cost approximately 23.5 billion euros over four years, which in the current difficult situation at the international level would cost 23.5 billion euros. will ultimately lead Portugal towards austerity policies.

At this point, he quoted former President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio about the negative consequences of austerity policies and concluded by warning that austerity policies would “blow up Portugal.”

“The right has learned nothing and presents a program that, in the context we live in, will lead us to austerity. Be careful of those who promise everything, for whom everything is easy, because they are the same ones who in the past carried out the biggest attack on the rights of the Portuguese,” he accused.

The PS Secretary General attributed the last PSD/SDS government, which existed between 2011 and 2015, to “the biggest cuts in pensions and salaries.”

“Beware of those who promise, because when they rule, they do the exact opposite. If you want to know what kind of future the right has in store for us, just remember what they gave us in the past. There is no point in hiding Pedro Passos Coelho. , because Luis Montenegro was indeed one of the biggest responsible for the measures to cut wages and pensions,” he said.

But Pedro Nuno Santos went even further in his attack, saying that the current PSD president “was one of the main culprits of one of the darkest periods in Portugal.”

“There is no need to hide behind the troika’s memorandum, because they carried it out with conviction. They boasted that they went beyond the troika,” insisted the PS secretary general, before also linking Luis Montenegro to criticism of the Constitutional Court decision that finally stopped pension cuts and salaries.

In his speech, the PS Secretary General once again promised to extend IRS Jovem to non-graduates, gradually reduce tuition fees until they are abolished, and double the number of beds in university residences.

“We want free education, from kindergarten to higher education,” he said, reinforcing his promise to phase out tuition fees.

In the education sector, he accused the head of Pedro Passos Coelho of allegedly facilitating the layoff of 28 thousand teachers. Regarding housing construction, Pedro Nuno Santos, who oversaw this area as minister, spoke about ongoing work throughout the Porto region.

“This is the work of the PS and SDP bodies under state programs. There is work completed. There is work. Go and see,” he added.