Mariana Mortagua: “This is a government of greed. State of the Nation is a trailer for what will happen in the original English language.”

Montenegro says Rui Tavares “has great rhetorical talent, but he should use his talent to actually act.”

Rui Tavares of Livre begins by mentioning that Luis Montenegro did not mention “serious problems” in his opening speech, citing the example that “not a word” was heard about the ecological crisis, the climate crises, the impact of artificial intelligence, the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, among others.

“The country would have confidence if it had a prime minister who, in a chaotic world, knew how to say that, faced with a world at war, Portugal has a strategy to rethink its economy,” he said.

“There will be no second opportunity to deliver the maiden speech in the State of the Nation debate,” he said.

Luis Montenegro replies: “He has great rhetorical talent, but he should use his talent to achieve reality.”

Paulo Raimundo says government does ‘everything around big interests’

PCP General Secretary Paulo Raimundo begins by talking about salaries and also criticising the IRC cuts, “an option proposed by the government at the service of large economic groups”.

The PCP leader says the government is “deepening into injustice and inequality” by demanding “wage increases to stimulate the domestic market where small businesses thrive.” He also attacks the government for bringing everything “in line with big interests.”

Mariana Mortagua: “This is a government of greed. State of the Nation is a trailer for what will happen in the original English language.”

Mariana Mortagua from Blok de Esquerda begins by proposing an imagination exercise.

“Let’s imagine that instead of pointing out the government’s international cowardice, we congratulated the prime minister for supporting Guterres and recognizing Palestine, that instead of asking the prime minister where he was going to get millions of euros to pay the jackpot to big companies, we asked about raising the minimum wage to a thousand euros,” he said.

He also claims it is a “government of greed,” adding that “State of the Nation” is just a trailer for what will happen to the government’s budget.”

In response, Luis Montenegro says that “if we imagined that all BE ideas would materialize and come to life, we wouldn’t need to look for consequences.”

He claims that this has already been tried in other countries and the result has been poverty and the impossibility of equality in societies.

Rui Rocha says that “The state of a nation is the state of its plans”

Rui Rocha of the Liberal Initiative says that “The state of the nation is the state of the plans. Not only of this government, but also of those presented by the previous government.”

He gives examples of plans where “the results have not lived up to expectations”, such as the National Rail plan, the Forestry plan, and the More Homes, Fewer Houses programme.

“There were even those who presented a plan for two airports,” he said.

“It is not enough to present plans; they must be implemented,” he added, addressing the government.

Ventura responds to Montenegro: “Until now, the PSD was the one who took Antonio Costa on its back to Brussels”

Chega’s leader, André Ventura, begins by saying that he believes Luis Montenegro “came to talk about what is important: about consultations that the Portuguese cannot count on, about tolls, housing costs and the corruption that continues to plague our country.”

Regarding the “pilot transport” that Luis Montenegro accused Chega of leading the PS, André Ventura replies that “Until now, the man who took António Costa to Brussels was the PSD.“.

“It’s time to forget the dreams of a vote of no confidence and elections and talk about a health plan,” Andre Ventura said, asking about the emergency plan “that they promised.”

SDP asks PS to be ready to discuss IRC in Parliament

Hugo Soares, the parliamentary leader of the PSD, told PS that he is ready to discuss the IRC in parliament.

In response, Luis Montenegro says that the government is ready to talk to the opposition, especially on all issues, including taxes, but the opposition only shows that they need a “simulation of availability” for negotiations.

Pedro Nuno attacks Montenegro: “We heard the intervention of a political leader in a fight, not a prime minister”

Pedro Nuno Santos begins his intervention by attacking Luis Montenegro. “We heard the intervention not of a prime minister, but of a political leader in battle,” he said.

The PS leader also regrets the “arrogance” of Luis Montenegro.

“They don’t say anything more about other sectors, we don’t know what they want from the Portuguese economy,” he asked.

Pedro Nuno Santos also wanted to know which companies would benefit from tax savings with the IRC.

Montenegro: “The final conclusion is confusion in the opposition”

Luis Montenegro adds that he has seen “that this intervention is generating interest from the opposition” and states that his latest conclusion “is actually confusion in the opposition.”

He says the PS is demanding from this government “what it never wanted to do.”

“We already knew there were many contradictions, but seeing the PS demanding more tax cuts, demanding an agreement with teachers, the security forces, which it never wanted to do, the abolition of transport fees, which it refused to reduce, demanding that this government do in 60 days what it had not done in 3,050 days, was a display of political aggression worthy of a tragicomic play,” he says.

“The fact that Chega supported all this with conviction and pride was a huge contribution that the anti-system made to the system,” he adds.

“If someone had dared to say before the elections that Chega was going to take PS on his back, so that PS would grab Chega’s back so that both could govern, anyone would have said that it was madness, but in fact, these days, it is reality,” he criticizes.

The prime minister also said that “the PS did not object to eating fruit that it said was banned, and the party did not object to eating fruit that it said was rotten.”

Luis Montenegro ends with the words: “We will be independent from those parties that unite the left and the right.”

“Portugal, Portuguese men and women know that there is a government that has a course, that keeps its word, that carries out its program, that does not have the truth, that is ready to discuss with others, a government that looks after the young people, for those who work, for those who are retired, this is the government in power,” he concludes.

PM attacks former government’s stands

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro criticised the former government’s credentials, saying the same people introduced themselves with different words every year.

“The ones we present should not be repeated,” they need to be “considered,” and others will come, he said.

“The word was given, the word was kept”: the prime minister said that the commitments made during the election campaign are being fulfilled

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro begins with an initial speech and is given 40 minutes to speak.

He states that the nation is undergoing a transformation, is confident and that it has and will continue to implement a program of change. Luis Montenegro also added that “there is great confusion in the opposition.”

“The first conclusion is the transformation of Portugal,” he said.

After 100 days in office, Luis Montenegro says that transformations can be seen in several areas of governance and that the commitments made during the campaign are being fulfilled, repeating this at different times: “The word is given, the word is honored”.

Remember the agreements with teachers, security forces, judicial officials, prison guards and health workers. “These meetings are ongoing,” he adds.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic begins work

The President of the Assembly of the Republic, Aguiar-Branco, begins his work, keeping in mind that the time management system will work in the same way as in previous sessions.

State of the Nation debate begins in parliament