Montenegro thanks Passos Coelho for his “patriotic work”

The PSD President said this Monday “many, many, many thanks” to Pedro Passos Coelho for his “patriotic work” when he led the government between 2011 and 2015, stressing that “perhaps no one else could have achieved” that same Results.

At a rally in the monasteries of the School of Hotels and Tourism of the Algarve in Faro, Luis Montenegro was for the first time during the AD campaign next to the former leader and former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who justified his presence as revenge for the support he always received from his former parliamentary leader.

“Dear Pedro, with all due respect: you do not need to repay anything, we must always say thank you very, very, very much for everything you have done for us, for the country, for the people. “For the patriotic work you have done leading the government,” he said, receiving applause and chants of “Portugal, Portugal” from the more than 400 supporters in attendance.

Montenegro believed that Passos Coelho achieved results that “perhaps no one else could achieve”

“From 2011 to 2015, through the efforts of the entire Portuguese people, we sent home, at the right time and without delay, the troika that others had brought home, and gave the Portuguese the autonomy to choose their future,” he said.

Regarding this period, the PSD president left another note: “I hope that all those who were in these positions before me will receive from the PS the country that we left in 2015.”

“With the SDP alone or in alliance, every time we passed through government, we left the country better than we found it. Every time the PS passes through the government, it leaves the country worse than when it arrived,” he criticized.

Stating that he was “honored and proud” to be associated with this work, Montenegro stressed that he would not “entertain himself by looking back” or be distracted by political games.

“It will be the Portuguese who will make the next Portuguese government viable, giving us the confidence we need to form a government and ensure stability in the country,” he said, indirectly answering questions about scenarios after elections in March. 10 .

At an open-air rally on a cold night, Montenegro wanted to highlight the difference between the AD and PS projects, saying it was “difficult to understand” the criticism of adventurism leveled at it by Socialist general secretary Pedro Nuno. Santos.

“What legitimacy does someone have who, just a few years ago, believed that we shouldn’t even pay our creditors, who has been in government for these eight years and failed in transport, infrastructure and housing,” he wondered.

The AD leader believed that in this campaign voters can choose between a “mediocre model” of economic growth, which, in his words, is the PS model, and the SDP/SDS-PP/PPM model, based on “bold, public policies, but achievable” , “one of the main pillars of which” is to reduce taxation in order to increase investment.

“Honestly, if PS – beyond the games of ‘if this is so, if this is so’ – he should tell the country that we are opportunists or we are malicious and want people to suffer (…) this is very little,” he criticized.

Montenegro also turned to the head of the AD list in Faro, its vice-president Miguel Pinto Luz, whose choice initially caused some local opposition as he was not from the district.

“The signal that I wanted to give to the people of the Algarve was to see in this option the appreciation that I myself, the leader of the AD, wanted to give: to ask one of the “deputies” to be present here in my presentation to say this from now we let’s give political weight to the Algarve,” he said, accusing the PS of leaving the region “abandoned and forgotten.”

Algarve he reiterated that if he wins, he will reverse the current government’s measures to restrict local housing, leaving it to local authorities to resolve conflicts that may exist in this area with housing policy.

“Those who work cannot earn less than those who do not work, it is worth working better and merit will be rewarded,” he said, expressing a commitment that is always appreciated by supporters in the various municipalities he visited.