Rui Rocha uses criticism to distance himself from the government

“It is unacceptable for the IRS to cease being a tax on income and become a tax on age,” the party president said following a meeting at which the new political platform was approved by 97.89 percent of the requests.

Rui Rocha thus attacked the IRS Jovem, which provides a reduced rate up to 35 years and which is one of the flagships of the current government. “We have learned that good treatment of qualified Portuguese over 35 means giving them a 20% IRS rate,” added the liberal, while promising to “continue the fight for a single income tax” without discrimination “by age.” or “origin.”

One of the critical voices heard at the meeting was that of a former leader and current MEP. João Cotrim de Figueiredo said that in recent days the party had given “several examples of how sometimes we close ourselves in our own heads” and that the party needed to communicate in an “encouraging way”. “We have the PSD in power, which is moving timidly in some of the directions we have indicated,” he added.

The party president, Rui Rocha, himself criticized the AD government, saying that “it is very difficult to remove the PS from power, but it is equally difficult to remove socialist ideas from power, even when the PS is not in power.” Rui Rocha believes that the housing measures “only aggravate the problem” of the shortage of houses and that “it is unacceptable that a school (…) is not determined by families, but by a postal code.” The party chairman also left appeals to the court, considering it “unacceptable” to have “citizens detained longer than the law allows” and to have citizens “subject to wiretapping for four years.”