Pedro Nuno Santos calls on Montenegro to say where it will cut spending if AD forecasts don’t come true

On Tuesday, the secretary general of the Social Democratic Party called on the SDP leader to clarify where he would cut spending if the Democratic Alliance’s (AD) macroeconomic forecasts fall short, and accused the coalition of offering a “failure of development” for workers.

In his speech at the end of a meeting with several trade unionists in the auditorium of the Metropolitano de Lisbon, Pedro Nuno Santos reiterated that the macroeconomic scenario of the PSD/CDU/PPM coalition does not correspond to “any forecasts.” any international organization.”

The Socialist secretary-general warned that Europe is already “facing a context of uncertainty”, with “Europe’s biggest economies” showing signs of slowing, with some revising economic growth downwards or discussing “austerity packages”.

“What happens if those growth forecasts that have not been confirmed by any international organization are not confirmed? Where are they going to cut? This is the answer that the leaders of AD and AD will have to give to the Portuguese: if we do not achieve the growth rates envisaged in the macroeconomic scenario, where will they contract?” he asked.

The PS leader argued that the problem with an “unrealistic” macroeconomic scenario is that you set whatever growth rate you want to “fit in all the spending or tax cuts” but if they don’t happen they will then make “necessary cuts” .

“It’s good that for reasons of directness, openness, transparency with the Portuguese, they are saying right now: if these growth rates don’t happen, where will they go down? So that all workers and pensioners know what they are counting on.” March 10,” he said.

Previously, the Secretary General of the PS had already criticized Luis Montenegro for “saying a few things and then always retreating the next day,” arguing that it was necessary to be “very careful.”

Pedro Nuno Santos argued that this was true, for example, in the issue of unemployment benefits, in which Luis Montenegro stated that those who work should not have a lower income than those who do not work.

“What they probably don’t know, or if they do know, they really want to reconsider insurance benefits is that unemployment benefits are not a government service for those who are working and have lost their jobs, it is a right won by working people,” he said. , stressing that he was alarmed by “what was said and later denied” by Luis Montenegro on this issue.

The PS leader also stated that Luis Montenegro did the same with regard to public administration, stressing that careers “depend on assessment, progress, points and time.”

“The first statement made [por Luís Montenegro] eliminates time from your speech. We’ve heard it all. The next day he resigned again, but the anxiety remained: do you want to change your career, the way a teacher’s career is happening, career growth? If this is the goal, then it should be assumed,” he defended himself.

According to Pedro Nuno Santos, “a candidate for prime minister, candidates who put themselves forward should say what they are coming for, so that people know that it is possible to win the lottery, depending on the party.”

In this speech, Pedro Nuno Santos also argued that the signs that the Portuguese right presents show that if they had the opportunity to govern, they would realize “setbacks in the progress” made by the workers.

“No one should also doubt the usual project which they call flexibilization, which is more beautiful, it simply means the deprivation of protection, the elimination of rights, in practice the reduction of freedom: because when there is no labor legislation, when there is no labor protection “In a relationship there is one the part that is freer than the other,” he argued, calling for further progress in workers’ rights, especially regarding weekly working hours.

“We have been reducing weekly working hours for 26 years. Hey, it’s time for us to move forward a little more in Portugal,” he said.

This meeting was attended by trade unionists such as the deputy general secretary of the UGT, Sergio Monte, and the general secretary of the socialist trade union movement CGTP, Fernando Gomez, who called for a vote for the PS.