BE sees a political “game and retribution” between the SDP and the PS

BE coordinator Mariana Mortagua said this Wednesday that there is a political and non-financial “game of power and payback” between the PSD and the PS, ensuring that the blockers will continue to focus on monitoring the implementation of the budget.

Mariana Mortagua was speaking to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic when she was asked about the exchange of accusations between the PSD/CDU-PP minority government and the Socialists over the budgetary situation left by the previous chief executive.

“It seems to us that at the moment it is much more about the game of power and settling scores between the SDP and the PS, which is now happening in this fight over the accounts, in this war over the narrative of the accounts, as can be seen from the lists of successive leaders , which we are seeing in several institutions where directors appointed by PS are summarily dismissed so that directors close to SDP and SDS-PP can be brought in,” he accused.

Mariana Mortagua emphasized that in recent years the BU has criticized “the management of the budget of the PS and the lack of transparency of budgetary options”, and added that the Assembly of the Republic “has an obligation to scrutinize public accounts”, but this is in order to have access to them.

“The PSD government did not participate in this review when, for example, in the Stability Program it presents macroeconomic and fiscal scenarios that are the scenarios of the previous government, instead of presenting its reports. Until the SDP presents its own. In the end, all we know is that between the PS and the SDP there is a game of political calculations, not financial calculations,” he said.

Asked whether it makes sense to hear Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento in Parliament (a hearing already urgently requested by the PS), Mariana Mortagua replied that “it always makes sense.”

“The more information and transparency, the better. We must listen, knowing the political purpose of what is at stake,” he stressed.

On Tuesday, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento today estimated the total expenditure of the previous government at the beginning of the year at 2.5 billion euros, which was not included in the state budget for 2024 (OE2024).

The official said the previous government approved emergency spending of 1.080 million euros, of which 960 million euros after the March 10 legislative elections.

Miranda Sarmento reiterated that the budget situation found by the current superintendent “is different from what was announced.”