With every question these days – no matter what ministers are doing – coming back to the State Budget, and whether or not it will pass, the prime minister stressed in Peniche this that “a country that is losing a large part of its human capital abroad cannot remain asleep contemplating this reality (…) We need to take risks, we need to have an idea of sustainability, but not an idea of immobilisation, not an idea of looking at recipes that have already been tested and which have brought stagnation as their main result.”
Refusing absolutely to comment on the allegations by CHEGA leader André Ventura that he offered CHEGA a deal in return for support over the budget, Luís Montenegro instead reemphasised that “for there to be success, for there to be growth, for there to be wealth, everyone has to collaborate.
The public authorities have to collaborate, they have to have a sense of responsibility, they have to know how to look to the future, they have to approve state budgets, because they have to, and they have to pursue policies that are friendly to companies and friendly to workers” (which is what the government believes it is doing).
Commentary following the prime minister’s interview last week suggests he is working hard to cultivate the image of a ‘statesman’ at a point when the political landscape appears to be peppered with figures that could never be ranked in that category.
