With the country under a state of alert for intense heat and rising fire risks – and major fires active in the north – leader of the PS José Luís Carneiro has launched into a blistering attack on the government.
Last week, Mr Carneiro was trying to get the prime minister to agree to dialogue with his party as the ‘main party in opposition’ (although it isn’t). Now he appears to have gone ‘the other way’.
Lashing out over the government’s management of wildfires that have been so fierce that the smoke is visible from space, the PS secretary-general also poured scorn on the proposed law to control the entry, permanence and expulsion of foreigners, as well as plans to update labour legislation.
On the subject of the fires, Mr Carneiro said that the government should already have activated the European mechanism for fighting fires by air, particularly in view of the heat forecasts for the next few days
“It would be good to have the European Union’s aerial support mechanisms pre-positioned so that, depending on the weather conditions, we can mobilise these resources more quickly to get them where they are needed,” he said.
As for the foreigners’ law (currently being considered by the Constitutional Court), he has lambasted it for being ‘inhumane’, referring to the plan to limit ‘family reunification’ to dependent members of the family, like young children – and not include parents/ parents in law/ siblings etc. – while the ideas for changes to labour laws are “unacceptable” and undermine fundamental values, in his opinion.
José Luís Carneiro referred to statements made by the Minister of Labour about ‘possible abuses of the right to breastfeed and demands that she explain what she said with concrete data’, writes SIC. This refers to the minister’s comment that she does not think it acceptable for mothers to still claim ‘time off work to breastfeed’ when their children are over the age of two…
The reality behind José Luís Carneiro’s latest attack centres on the fact that all parties are limbering up for municipal elections in October, in which they want to ‘do well’. In the case of the PS, it is keen to hold on to municipalities in areas (like the Algarve) where the party did comparatively badly in the legislative elections of May, losing multiple seats to CHEGA.
And this is the crux of the matter: José Luís Carneiro’s ‘outrage’ spent in the direction of the government may count for ‘very little’ as long as CHEGA supports the changes to foreigners’/ labour legislation. Between AD (the government coalition of PSD and CDS-PP), CHEGA and Iniciativa Liberal there are more than enough votes needed to pass key policies, even with votes against by parties of the left. This is a reality that PS Socialists are still finding very hard to swallow.
Source material: SIC Notícias
