… and CHEGA takes full advantage of Marcelo’s position
Yesterday, in front of journalists at the end of a visit to the Food Bank Against Hunger in Lisbon, President Marcelo showed that he too is against the budget measure that will bring an end to the 5% cut in MPs salaries, from January 1 next year.
This was the topic that caused so much excitement (for want of a better word) in parliament on Friday.
It was the measure approved by all parties, save PCP communists, which abstained, and CHEGA which theatrically disagreed.
And now, CHEGA is taking full advantage of the president’s opinion: the party’s leader André Ventura is calling on Marcelo to refer the measure for consideration by the Constitutional Court.
“I challenge the President of the Republic to take to the Constitutional Court the basis for these measures to increase politicians’ salaries, but not to end the other ‘troika’ measures that are still in force. If he does not do so, it is very likely that the CHEGA parliamentary group will do so”, he added.
This is the stuff of ‘dreams’ for CHEGA: the party revels in these kind of ‘populist inconsistencies’: if the president did not agree with this measure, why didn’t he say so earlier, before the State Budget was approved, quizzes Ventura.
“Saying this when the State Budget has already been approved seems like just a way of covering up instead of resolving things”, since, the party leader argued, “if he had taken a different position, he would have said it before, and probably prevented politicians from increasing their own salaries”.
Thus, the week will start with further ‘simmering political tensions’: CHEGA says it doesn’t want the salary increase, but will have to accept it if it is the law, and will ensure it is channelled to institutions that support the most disadvantaged. (These have been described as ‘associations fighting cancer’ or to help the disadvantaged, and ‘former combatents’.)
President Marcelo’s view is that he would have been more comfortable if the measure related to ‘future mandates’.
“In my mind, I had already given up, that is, I was no longer worried about counting on this salary increase in the next year and three months,” he told reporters.
This issue concerns measures taken during the Troika years, to reduce excessive deficits and control the growth of public debt. The government’s attitude is that ‘after more than 10 years all the other Troika measures have been revoked, apart from this one’, which affects not only MPs, but “executive and non-executive public managers, including those belonging to the local and regional public sector, and those equivalent to public managers”. CHEGA, clearly, is not so sure that all the other Troika measures have been revoked. But, whatever the truth, the cost of this one measure, renumerating politicians who already earn ‘very-well-thank-you’ is €20 million – and in the eyes of CHEGA, and its leader André Ventura, “in a country where the average salary is the amount that everyone knows, and the average pension is just over €500, we cannot propose increasing or restoring our salaries”.
Or, put another way, MPs obviously can (as they have), but it certainly doesn’t look very noble, as otherwise the president would not be saying that he doesn’t agree with it. ND
Source: LUSA
