Socialist Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos received this Monday from the National Political Commission of the PS the mandate to open a dialogue with the government on the state budget, guaranteeing “good faith” in the negotiations and rejecting “red lines”.
During today’s meeting of the National Political Commission, Marcos Perestrello from the National Secretariat of the party came to inform journalists about this decision of the party body.
Socialist sources reported that it was Pedro Nuno Santos who asked the National Political Commission for the mandate to manage the budget process.
“The National Political Commission of the PS has instructed the Secretary General of the PS to begin a process of dialogue with the government regarding the approval or non-approval of the next state budget,” the leader of the socialists said.
According to Marcos Perestrello, “there is a strong and sincere desire on the part of the PS to build a good” budget, but he stressed that the responsibility for approving it “belongs first and foremost to the government.”
PS, according to the leader, is conducting these negotiations “in good faith” and assures “not to enter into these negotiations with red lines.”
“It is the government that must govern, and the government must present the draft state budget to the Assembly of the Republic, and it must have the flexibility, the will and the willingness to negotiate with the Socialist Party on conditions that will allow the Socialist Party to accept this proposal for the state budget, creating the conditions for the country to have stability and, ideally, a good budget,” he stressed.
As for the specifications that Pedro Nuno Santos will present in these negotiations, Marcos Perestrello insisted that there are no red lines and acknowledged that there are “aspects of the budget that will certainly be shared by the government itself and that are very important for the PS”. Above all, this is “keeping the budget line balanced, reducing the debt” or the family support policy.
The task of the PS is to “start a good-faith dialogue with the government”, transferring to the executive power of Luis Montenegro “responsibility for approving the budget”, since “it must understand that it does not have an absolute majority and that the conditions under which the government operates force it to take on commitments”.
As for whether these negotiations should take place before the government prepares the proposal it will submit to parliament, the Socialist believes that “the ideal option would be to start them as soon as possible.”
“The government has already taken the negative step of not including in the main versions of the state budget for next year proposals that have already been approved by the Assembly of the Republic and have certain budgetary consequences,” he complained.
Asked how this negotiation process would begin, Marcos Perestrello said that the “issue of operationalization” is not “the most important thing at the moment.”
“The PS is available to establish a constructive dialogue on issues of the state budget with the aim of creating conditions of stability for the country, because the country needs it, and with the aim of guaranteeing, as far as possible, a budget that is as good as possible,” he stressed.
However, there must be “availability from the government and the prime minister” for “flexibility and goodwill”.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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