Pedro Nuno Santos criticizes the “European Union conditions” that hinder national reindustrialization

This Monday, the Secretary General of the Socialist Party criticized in front of North American legislators the “conditions of the European Union”, which, in his opinion, hinder the policy of national reindustrialization and favor “a few economic centers”, harming “many peripheries” such as Portugal.

Pedro Nuno Santos spoke at the Portuguese American Development Foundation (FLAD) in Lisbon as part of an initiative called Dialogue among Legislators, which aims to bring together Portuguese people and descendants of Portuguese people who play an important role in North American politics.

In a speech in English on his vision for the Portuguese economy, Pedro Nuno Santos began by criticizing the PSD, which he considered not a social democrat but a “neoliberal party”, and noted that “the country’s growth and prosperity depend on lower corporate taxes ”, as if “no strategy is needed.”

In contrast, the PS leader said that the country’s growth should not depend solely on tourism, and again defended the policy of selective government support for specific sectors of the economy.

The PS Secretary General noted that it is currently difficult to implement such a policy at the national level due to state aid rules set by the European Union (EU), which, despite having “always existed”, have been introduced since 1980. “like never before.”

To illustrate the issue, Pedro Nuno compared the measures taken during the pandemic by the US and EU governments to ensure the survival of the airline industry.

The PS leader said that the North American administration had invested “more than 60 billion euros” in the sector, which saved jobs, while in the EU, although state aid was not impeded, this type of burden had to be fully supported national funds. government.

Pedro Nuno Santos believed that this shows that the EU is “much better at playing competition policy than at industrial policy”, despite recognizing that due to competition with China, the issue of reindustrialization has entered the European agenda, and with the pandemic, ” the rules of the competition were relaxed,” which he considered positive.

“The problem is that large countries in the industrial core of Europe, such as Germany, France and Italy, are using the relaxation of these rules to invest in national companies, which seems unfair to countries that would also like to invest in their companies. , but who lack the financial capacity to do so,” he criticized.

Defending the need for “a new structure and a new balance between competition policy and industrial policy”, the PS leader called in particular for future European reindustrialization programs to be designed “in such a way as to ensure that large companies in all member states can benefit from from effort”, and not just “companies of the industrial triangle of Milan, Toulouse and Hamburg”.

“This tale of two alliances, in which few economic centers tend to prosper and many peripheries struggle or become impoverished, has political consequences, as numerous elections in the recent past have shown,” he warned, noting that the sooner this is recognized , “It will be all the more late as some stability will be restored and polarization will decrease.”

During the debate, when asked about populism, Pedro Nuno Santos noted that its rise is partly due to a more individualized society and the fact that in the age of social media, its “simplistic messages” are easier for the public to understand.

“Simplified solutions are easy to broadcast on TikTok. In this area, populists are winning by a large margin. We all need to learn how to communicate messages in 30 seconds,” he admitted.

On the issue of housing, which was also discussed, Pedro Nuno Santos defended the construction of public housing and took the opportunity to criticize the government.

“Abolition of taxes is not a solution. This is what the government is doing and you will see that it will not solve anything in the housing sector, because in a few years house prices will continue to rise and the tax cuts will eat up,” he said.