Opposition rails bonus is ‘electioneering measure’
Paulo Rangel, Portugal’s minister of foreign affairs has today refuted the opposition’s criticism of the measures announced by the prime minister at the annual PSD ‘summer get-together’ – arguing that the extraordinary supplement for lower pensions is a “fundamental support” that should cover 2.4 million people.
“I don’t understand how there are so many people, namely opposition parties, who are upset by this social measure that shows budgetary responsibility”, said Rangel faced as he was by a barrage of press questions.
On an official visit in Porto, Rangel specifically pointed to criticism from PS Socialist Party leader, Pedro Nuno Santos, who claims the pension supplement is an electioneering measure.
“As far as I know, there is no prospect of elections”, he said. “There are only elections if the PS leader wants them. Honestly, I’m not going to make a political comment, but there’s one thing I’ll tell you that’s clear: the Portuguese at home know that we’re a reformist government, with social sensitivity”.
In Rangel’s opinion, it is necessary to “look at people who have lower incomes. We have to have structural policies to make the economy grow and be able to distribute better, but we also have to have measures to support families and, in this case, older people”.
The supplement, which was announced on Wednesday at the Festa do Pontal, the PSD’s political rentrée event in the Algarve, is due to be implemented in October and will cost “just over €400 million”.
“Social measures shouldn’t bother the PS, they should stimulate the PS”, he said. The government is “always working towards stability and is not thinking about early elections”, he reiterated, stressing that the Executive’s “concern” is to “reform the country and have social sensitivity”.
In this sense, Rangel also pointed to the measure relating to the €20 monthly rail passes: “Look at what this means in terms of environmental sustainability! This is a structural measure, isn’t it?’.
Paulo Rangel also pointed to the announced increase in medical school places, stating that “the government is not working for tomorrow. The government is working for tomorrow, for a month from now, for a year from now”.
Still on the subject of health, Rangel also said he didn’t understand the criticisms of the PS and its leader, who considered that the situation within the SNS is now “worse than in 2023”.
“It is not worse, by any means, but there’s one thing I am going to say, you have to have moral authority to speak. It doesn’t make sense for Pedro Nuno Santos, who was part of a government that lasted eight or nine years and left the SNS in the state it’s in today, to come and criticise a government that has been in office for four months”.
In the case of closures of obstetric emergency departments, “we are resolving the problems and the system is working with limitations, which are the result of nine years of PS policies”, he went on.
The PS “also failed to resolve the issues of police officers, teachers, justice officials and the military. All these issues were resolved (by this government) in four months”.
As to the constant questions over the viability of the next state budget, the minister said that “everything is going according to normality” and suggested “serenity” to the Socialist leader, since negotiations “should restart in September”.
There are all the conditions to approve the next State Budget, “as long as the opposition parties want it.
“The government wants stability. Now stability also depends on the opposition”, Rangel concluded.
Prime minister Luís Montenegro announced on Wednesday that the government will approve an extraordinary supplement for the lowest pensions, which will vary between €100 and €200 and be paid in October.
In a speech lasting almost 45 minutes, Mr Montenegro outlined the supplement as providing €200 for those with pensions of up to €509.26, €150 for pensions between €509.26 and €1018.52 and €100 for pensions between €1018.52 and €1527.78.
The PM also announced the creation of more places on medical courses (this too was criticised by the Order of Physicians which complained more doctors will not translate into more doctors wanting to work for the Portuguese State health service), and a €20 monthly rail pass that will give access to all urban, regional, inter-regional and intercity trains (this elicited opposition taunts of ‘what trains?’, as the country is in the grip of periodic train strikes…)
Source material: LUSA
