THE PRESIDENT of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, has said that the government needs to rethink its policies for large-scale public works projects such as the high speed TGV rail link.
Appearing to agree with new PSD leader Manuela Ferreira Leite, who last week said on national television that there was “no money for anything”, the President is said not to be satisfied with the so-called strategic cooperation between São Bento and the Palácio de Belém.
In statements made on Friday, the Head of State mentioned his “dissatisfaction” with some of the Prime Minister’s government policies.
Cavaco Silva made comparisons between municipal councils making “small public works projects as against large public investment schemes” and then talked about the “difficult situation” the country was in and warned that debt could reach “unsustainable proportions”.
The weekend broadsheet newspaper Sol reported that the President had asked the Prime Minister two months ago for information and financial feasibility studies for new road rail concessions and had “yet to receive a reply”.
“We would all like this country’s economic performance to be better. We are in a situation far removed from average development in the European Union and have been for several years but we have to hope that, in future, things will be different,” said Cavaco Silva in Fronteira near Portalegre.
“We have only been given information on investments that have a relatively small cost compared to large scale public works which have been announced in our country, particular small investments which are a lot more profitable than large scale investments,” he said.
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