José Luís Carneiro criticized Chega in the closing speech of the State Budget, regretting that it was the Socialist Party that had to guarantee government stability. “If it weren’t for the Socialist Party’s sense of responsibility, Portugal would once again be plunged into a political crisis with unpredictable consequences. We honor our word and the trust that the Portuguese place in us. With this responsible attitude from the PS, the Government has no excuses for not fulfilling everything it has committed to with the Portuguese”, stated the secretary general of the PS, who warns that he will be “alert” so that the Government “fulfills its obligation, maintains the correct accounts that it inherited and completes the PRR that the PS Government managed to bring to the country.”
Carneiro recalled António Costa in his speech. “I want here, in this regard, to evoke the 10 years that passed yesterday after the inauguration of the first Government of António Costa and salute all the political forces that, by making this Government viable, demonstrated that there was an alternative policy to right-wing austerity”then criticizing the PSD-CDS-PP Budget: “It does not respond to our vision of the country’s development, it does not correspond to our economic policy options, it is contrary to our social policy options. It is a Budget empty of ambition and empty of content. It makes cuts and does not ensure an accessible, predictable and safe National Health Service for everyone. The truth is that, in just 3 years, the Government will completely destroy the budgetary slack it inherited. It’s a budget without credibility.”
Considering that the Government “is shackled”, “with a total lack of control in Health”, “zero solutions in housing”, Carneiro lamented that “the parties that support the Government – PSD, CDS and Chega – rejected the PS’s proposals for a structural increase in lower pensions and for reducing the cost of food products.”