PS parliamentary leader says legislative elections will be difficult but confident of victory

The parliamentary leader of the PS said on Tuesday that the next legislative elections will be difficult, but expressed confidence that the party will win them, given that the policies implemented have “made Portugal a better country.”

Speaking at the PS parliamentary group’s Christmas dinner in Lisbon, Eurico Brillante Dias said the party will enter 2024 “with confidence that the public policies” developed over the past few years have “made Portugal a better country.”

“And with this confidence, as a progressive party, we will face difficult elections with our secretary general, but I am confident (…) collectively we will prevail and win the elections on March 10,” he said.

Brillante Díaz refused the dissolution of Parliament declared by the President of the Republic, emphasizing that this was an option “legitimate within the constitutional framework”, but this did not happen because the Parliamentary Group and the Socialist majority “in no way wavered, lost its voice” or disintegrated.

The parliamentary group “has been the guarantor and could continue to be the guarantor of the stability of the government,” he said, stressing that the absolute majority of the PS remains “united and so united that even after the political crisis it was important and central to this.” The Portuguese will have a good government budget in 2024.

On the other hand, Brillante Díaz also stressed that the PS parliamentary group has assured that the current absolute majority is in dialogue, stressing that despite the opposition parties accusing the Socialists of using a “steam roller”, it is necessary to be “proud”. in the work done.

“Never have any specific majority from one party approved so many proposals in the budget framework, for example, as this majority,” he emphasized, emphasizing that “more than 200 proposals for amendments” were approved in the state budget from opposition parties.

Brillante Díaz also mentioned that the results of the first legislative session found that half of the laws approved in parliament came “from either the government” or the PS, while the other half “came from opposition parties.” .

“This is a sign that will always remain in the future: how a party with a majority in parliament was able to commit itself to negotiations, dialogue, jointly developing solutions, listening to the democratic opposition that has expression in the Assembly of the Republic,” he said.

The Chairman of the PS parliamentary group also stated that there is another feature of the current legislature of which he is particularly proud, namely the fact that his panel has implemented the “red line” with which it presented itself in the legislature and ensured that “extremely there will be no raisins for the right.”

“To date, there is not a single draft resolution or law presented by the extreme right and adopted in parliament,” he said, assuring that with the PS “the red line will remain.”

Regarding the legislative files, Brillante Díaz highlighted the fact that the PS took the fight against domestic violence as a topic of the first legislative session, in addition to combating the consequences of the war in Ukraine and inflation, and highlighted the approval of the Medically Assisted Death Law.

“It was unique, it will remain forever, it is a step forward from a civilizational point of view, which will always remain with this parliamentary group. There is no unanimity in the parliamentary group, but it is clearly in the majority,” he said. , noting that this was achieved despite “a long struggle within the constitutional framework.”