PSD President and re-candidate Luis Montenegro has made the fight against corruption one of his priorities for the next two years and is pushing to reduce the IRC to 15% by 2027 and reduce the IRS for young people by one third.
As part of the global strategy with which he is running for a new mandate at the head of the Social Democrats, the current Prime Minister is repeating many of the commitments he included in the election and government program, some of which have already been approved, while others will only be discussed by parliamentarians after the holidays.
Montenegro pledges to continue “reducing the IRS tax burden on families, either by updating the brackets to account for inflation or by lowering the rates by 2028,” and reaffirms its intention to apply a maximum 15% rate of that tax to young people under 35 and to reduce the share of the IRS to 15% by 2027 – two measures that have not received the consent of the main opposition PS party.
The 26-page proposal makes no mention of the 2025 state budget – with no guaranteed approval, as the PSD and SDS-PP make up only 80 of the 230 MPs, while the Socialists have 79 – leaving some criticism of what is being said, classifying it as the “socialist inaction” of previous governments and suggesting ways to combat extremist parties.
“The fight against corruption must be a priority. We cannot leave the monopoly on this issue to the extreme. If the moderates do not mobilize against corruption, it is only natural that the people will rise up with the moderates,” the text says.
Montenegro’s proposal goes further in this area: “We cannot be timid in the fight against corruption. Sanctions must be severe and exemplary, to discourage any attempts to corrupt the system. We must toughen penalties for those who abuse public power for personal gain and expand the rules on impediments and incompatibilities, so that no one can go unpunished.”
The national debate on voting at 16, the review of the “municipal governance model”, the “introduction of postal voting in presidential and European elections for voters in the Portuguese communities” or the review of the Law on the Financing of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns are other commitments in the area of the political system set out in the Montenegrin proposal.
Much of the proposal is devoted to the withdrawal of some measures already presented by the PSD/CDS-PP leader, who took office on April 2, in areas such as education or health, an area that is also identified as a “top priority”.
“The reform of health sector governance will include decentralisation of competencies and the introduction of a new financing model that rewards efficiency and clinical outcomes,” the proposal says.
In the area of social security, there is a mention of “reform of the pension system” without further details, as well as “simplification of the rules of access to social assistance and the creation of a Solidarity Supplement”, in a text that reaffirms the commitment to increase investment in defence to 2% of GDP by 2029.
On immigration, the text warns of “unhealthy consequences” in some areas when it is “not regulated, controlled or planned” and advocates policies aimed at “integration, predictability and adaptation to our common values.”
With several quotes from the poet Luis Vaz de Camões, the proposal highlights that the current PSD leadership won four of the five elections it contested in the first two years of its mandate (the exception being the European elections).
“The PSD has once again become the largest Portuguese party,” the text concludes, stressing that these results were achieved with the help of two new parties (IL and Chega, which are never mentioned).
Despite this, Montenegro promises to separate the plans of the party and the government: “We are fully aware that the government should not be confused with the party, and the party should not be confused with the government. We do not want and will not have a party government,” he assures.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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