Main opposition leaders full of criticism and obvious rancour
Reactions to the PM’s inaugural speech on Tuesday evening have seen both main parties in opposition to Portugal’s new government on the attack – piqued particularly, it seems, by Luís Montenegro’s appeal to “let the government work”.
Outlining the AD plan for the transformation of Portugal over the next few years, commentators remarked that there was so much in there, succeeding with everything would be a major challenge even for a government with a majority.
But PS leader Pedro Nuno Santos emerged from comparative silence yesterday, to dub the speech as one “without ambition, without vision, without a plan for Portugal”.
Santos appeared visibly irritated, suggesting the AD leader was setting out to “blackmail” and play the victim”.
“The speech we witnessed (…) was much more focussed on the opposition than on Portugal, it really seemed like building a speech, a narrative to use in a possible election campaign,” he accused, going on to predict that the new government is “preparing the ground” for not fulfilling electoral promises.
“Today we are witnessing the beginning of a discourse and the preparation of political ground for the non-realisation of everything that was promised”, he told a press conference at the PS national headquarters in Lisbon, suggesting the PM’s speech was “typical of right-wing governments in Portugal, and of the PSD in Portugal”, with the idea that “there is no money” when there had been so much talk in recent weeks about a budget surplus.
CHEGA’s André Ventura was equally as ‘negative’ (remember, Montenegro had been at pains to explain his executive seeks to work for the good of “todos, todos, todos”), quick to describe the situation as another political “swamp” in which “new elections would be preferable”.
“CHEGA feels absolutely free from the obligation to make any AD government instrument viable, because for weeks CHEGA has said that it was available for a sustainable four-year government agreement. Luís Montenegro’s government has said we don’t want this, let’s have dialogue, especially with the PS. Now we hear the PS saying that it doesn’t want to dialogue, especially with AD!”
Ventura’s stance is that the “scenario is absolutely precarious (…) Because it’s clear to everyone that there is no parliamentary base of support for this government and this, in a parliamentary system like Portugal’s, is absolutely suicidal!”
While President Marcelo said as he swore in the new executive that it had a difficult mission, “but not an impossible one”, the country’s two main parties in opposition clearly beg to differ.
André Ventura even sided with Pedro Nuno Santos, in that he said: “It seems that the AD wants to provoke a political crisis quickly in order to have some kind of majority that they dream in their heads is possible…” But he went a step further, blaming President Marcelo as “one of those responsible for this situation (…) because he didn’t promote policies of understanding that were fundamental and that any President of the Republic would promote in identical circumstances”.
All in all, the new government’s path is already littered with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. This is going to be a very bumpy ride.
Comment: natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
