Montenegro says ‘real political instability’ in Portugal belongs to opposition

This Sunday, the SDP president said that the “real political instability” in the country is linked to the opposition, and accused the PS and Çega leaders of “disgust and disorientation” regarding the negotiations on the next state budget.

At the closing of the PSD Summer University, a youth education initiative that ends this Sunday in Castelo de Vide (Portalegre), Montenegro, he also left a warning based on his conviction: “This government does not need elections to govern itself or to re-legitimize itself. We are enough to carry out our program, so in Portugal there is a political responsibility to ensure that there is no government blockade.”

“I am convinced that at the moment the country is on the side of the government, but we do not know whether the opposition will be on the side of the country,” he said.

In a speech lasting about 40 minutes, the prime minister said that “contrary to what many predicted, there is no instability in the government in Portugal, there is no political instability in Portugal except instability of the opposition.”

“The real political instability in Portugal comes from an opposition that spends its whole life saying one thing and the opposite, speaking in advance and being impulsive,” he said.

The prime minister has said several times that elections are only scheduled for four years and has returned accusations of electoralism to the opposition: “Whoever talks about electoralism is someone who hopes to hold elections earlier, but that is not us,” he said.

Regarding the state budget negotiations, Montenegro stressed that the resumption of negotiations in September was always expected, accusing P.S. and Čega of creating “ghosts” and diversionary maneuvers around the issue.

“The leader of Čega is upset because he saw some news that turned out to be untrue and came to the conclusion that in August there were negotiations between PS and SDP, and from there, immaturely and hastily, he says: ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with the budget,'” he criticized.

On the other hand, he continued, the PS leader “feels angry because no one told him anything in August,” referring to a letter sent by Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos asking for more information on the budget framework and which Socialists did not find the answers satisfactory.

“Well, no, that was not what was agreed upon. It is September 1, we are on time, on time and on time to talk to the political parties and adopt the proposal for the state budget. Where do these ghosts come from, where do they come from, where is this disorientation coming from?” he asked.

The Prime Minister confirmed two conditions that the government is setting in negotiations on the document.

“I will not feign a desire to negotiate, I will sit down and responsibly and loyally put the issues on the table. Secondly, we will not deviate from the essence of our program,” he emphasized.

Montenegro even accused PS and Čega of having already included the main conditions in the document that the government is to present to parliament by October 10, and that “now they apparently want to distance themselves.”

“The budget is already heavily conditioned by the collusion between PS and Chega: we are facing a different and more expensive IRS cut than what the government wanted, an unfair abolition of road tolls and a reduction in VAT on electricity,” he listed.