Eurico Brillante Diaz argues that the PS was essential to stability and had tough negotiations with the government.

This Monday, the parliamentary leader of the PS defended that his bench is engaging in the political dialogue necessary for political stability, rejecting Chega and Iniciativa Liberal’s no-confidence movements, and sometimes negotiating harshly with the government.

These positions were put forward by Eurico Brillante Diaz at the dinner on the second day of the Parliamentary Days of the PS in Funchal, during a speech in which he summed up the first legislative session of the Assembly of the Republic.

In a speech to his deputies, Eurico Brillante, Diaz attempted to dismiss the idea that he was heading the bench without autonomy from António Costa’s executive. He said journalists “can’t imagine how difficult negotiations with the government are sometimes” and described the PS as a “radical democratic” party.

“For this reason, the PS majority never equals the right-wing majority. We were the decisive force in maintaining political stability in Portugal,” he argued – here, hinting at the rejection of censure. the proposals of Chega and Iniciativa Liberal and before talking about the political relations of the socialist bench with others in parliament, whether on the left or on the right.

At this point, the chairman of the PS Parliamentary Group rejected the opposition’s theory of “the presence of a steamroller” in the Assembly of the Republic as a result of an absolute socialist majority.

“It’s easy to make out by the numbers of this long first legislative session. This is a mistake, this is not happening and it has nothing to do with our work,” he said.

“We were the majority of the dialogue, although we firmly adhered to the electoral program of the PS,” he countered, referring below to a number of data that, in his opinion, allow us to understand what happened in this first legislative session in the Assembly of the Republic.

According to the leader of the socialist bench, in this legislative session, the PS Parliamentary Group has already approved a total of 20 draft laws and submitted more than a hundred amendments to the government’s proposals for state budgets for 2022 and 2023 so far.

In terms of budgets, he reiterated that his bench approved 144 amendment proposals from the opposition – numbers he says contrast with PSD/CDS chief executive Pedro Passos Coelho between 2011 and 2015, who approved just over 40.

Eurico Brillante Díaz also stressed that both budgets not only received the votes of an absolute socialist majority, but also abstained from PAN, Livre and even, this time, in 2022, from PSD / Madeira deputies.

With regard to other policy areas, he highlighted proposals to change the Decent Work Agenda, Mais Habitação and “follow-up” measures to combat inflation.

In the case of the Decent Work Agenda, he specifically mentioned the introduction of a presumption of an employment contract within the digital platform, an increase in absenteeism due to the death of a spouse, the possibility of obtaining sick leave through the SNS 24 service, and the extension of the right to remote work to parents of children with chronic diseases, regardless of from age.

In the case of the housing package, the socialist caucus’ actions focused on changing the IRS code to encourage lower incomes, limiting tax credits for real estate investment funds, banning income support forfeiture, emergency contributions to local housing, and extending rental benefits. to a student hostel.

At a dinner attended by several PS/Madeira leaders, the Chairman of the PS Parliamentary Group also sought to highlight achievements in terms of territorial unity, arguing that his deputies had contributed or were directly involved in amending the Statute of Local Elected Representatives, in the Bill on Polytechnic institutions and in strengthening the devolution of powers as part of the decentralization process.