Montenegro says it is willing to negotiate but would rather leave than not fulfill its commitments to the country.

The prime minister said on Monday that he would agree to talks with other political forces, but warned that he refused to play political games and that he would rather “leave” than not fulfill the commitments he had made to the country.

This warning was conveyed by Luis Montenegro at the end of the Millennium Negotiations conference, which was held at the Carlos Lopes Pavilion in Lisbon, after mentioning measures in the program presented by the government, called “Accelerating the Economy”, namely, a forecast reduction of the IRC to 15% by 2027.

“The fiscal policy is not an instrument of financial policy, but, first of all, of economic and social policy. Taxes must be changed to achieve greater economic growth. When we decide to reduce the IRC or increase the cash VAT for companies with a business volume of 500 thousand euros to two million euros, when we do this, we will look at the economic and social impact of the measures,” the executive leader began with a statement.

Luis Montenegro said he was not “irresponsible” in terms of balancing government accounts, but said when the IRC goes down he thinks about more than just tax revenue.

He then touched on the implementation of the government’s programme from a political point of view and the criticism it received from opposition parties, particularly regarding the reduction of corporate income tax.

“Even in relation to the result of the elections and the composition of the Assembly of the Republic, I agree to negotiate, I want to get the greatest possible consensus, but I do not agree to go against my word in terms of the main pre-election commitments and I do not agree to distort the commitments that I made to the Portuguese people, to the President of the Republic and to the deputies at the programmatic level,” he warned.

The prime minister went further in his warnings to opposition forces, saying he wanted to bring positions closer together and saying his government had taken steps in that direction.

“But they cannot ask us to do the opposite of what we have committed to the Portuguese and what we believe in. For this, I prefer to leave. I will not play political shadow games or simulate negotiations with parties that already have their own positions, I say this openly. This is not arrogance, but humility,” he said.

The executive leader asked an audience of businessmen whether the country “wants to take risks or wants to remain the same” in terms of economic strategy.

“If you want to do the same thing that has been done in recent years, then you will have to choose a different government because this one was chosen for something else,” he added.

In the first part of his speech, Luis Montenegro referred to criticism from left-wing parties of the economic program presented by his government last week, called “Accelerating the Economy”.

The prime minister said there were parties that said the program was aimed at those with the most opportunities, the “rich.” Then he countered: “Wealth creation is the best way to fight poverty.”

“The measures we have taken are mainly aimed at the poorest sections of the population, trying to make them more privileged” in Portuguese society, he countered.

At the beginning of his speech at the Millennium Talks conference, Luis Montenegro also defended the thesis that “without financial stability there can be no good economy.”

“I couldn’t agree more with what was said here about economies of scale, mergers and consortiums. Our goal is that micro companies can be small companies, small companies can be medium companies, medium companies can be large companies and large companies can be multinational companies. We want to stimulate growth and therefore not allow a medium company to lose incentives and support when it becomes a large company,” he stressed.