This Wednesday, the PSD president thought it was “excellent” that Prime Minister António Costa was willing to discuss with him and brought up a number of issues related to tax cuts for discussion.
“Great, great, the prime minister wants to argue with me, so I ask him: to reduce or not to reduce the IRS in 2023 for all levels except the last one, and in particular for the middle class, below or not below. up to a maximum rate of 15% for young people under 35,” Luis Montenegro asked.
The PSD leader spoke to reporters as part of a visit to the Portalegre BioBip Incubator for Bioenergy and Business at the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP), the latest action included in the Sentir Portugal program promoted by the PSD in the area.
“Withdraws from any taxes or contributions or not bonuses for the performance and productivity of those who show the best results, the best results in their professional activities, regardless of whether they want to legislate updating IRS levels in line with inflation or not” – also he asked the leader of the Social Democrats a question.
According to Luis Montenegro, the SDP is ready for debate, but requires the prime minister to answer the questions raised by the party.
“You want to debate, Mr. António Costa, let’s move on to the debate, we are here for that, but you have to give answers. Dr. António Costa has a PhD in speaking, but he answers little and does much less,” he criticized.
The PSD leader reacted to António Costa’s statements this Wednesday in Guimarães when asked about the criticism from the PSD leader, in which Luis Montenegro accused the Prime Minister of “pouting” during the last meeting of the Council of State, after which the Prime Minister filed an appeal to Montenegro to also respect the institutions.
“Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t tend to sulk. Dr. Luis Montenegro must also respect the institutions and their functioning. Moreover, as he himself said two days ago, he is the leader of the opposition. Therefore, the political debate that I have to conduct, they are with him, they are in parliament,” António Costa stressed.
The prime minister also said this Wednesday that “whoever lies” about what is happening in the State Council is “doing a disservice” to the country, and refused to confirm that he remained silent at the meeting of this body.
On this occasion, Luis Montenegro believes that the Prime Minister’s statements “almost became anecdotal”, since “it remains only to say” that the information leaks were the authorship of the social democratic leader.
“One thing you can be absolutely sure of: I was not at the meeting of the State Council, neither at this one, nor at the previous ones. I only know what is made public and what is not denied,” he said.
Luis Montenegro once again considered that the silence of António Costa at the meeting of the Council of State was “abnormal”, expressing regret that the veto of the President of the Republic on housing law results in “pouting” on the part of the first minister.
“We are not going to promote or gloss over the prime minister’s institutional shortcomings. And I want to say to the Portuguese: when I become prime minister, I will not have this institutional behavior, whether the President of the Republic agrees or not,” he added.
Also, when asked about the statement of the leader of Chega, who confirmed this Wednesday in the Assembly of the Republic that the party would present a vote of no confidence in the government at the beginning of the second legislative session, Luis Montenegro responded only by saying that it was “déjà vu”.