Former minister smooths over rough edges left by party leader’s recent speech
Former Minister of Internal Affairs José Luís Carneiro has stepped into the icy waters separating the incoming AD government and PS Socialists, arguing that there IS room for dialogue on strategic matters.
To a large extent, the former contender for PS party leadership was using the powers of diplomacy eschewed by PS secretary-general Pedro Nuno Santos who is widely seen to have ‘missed’ the swearing in of the new government in a fit of pique.
A former Secretary of State for the Portuguese communities, Mr Carneiro has long experience in diplomatic balancing acts, and thus he managed to smooth the way forwards while at the same time supporting the Socialist standpoints.
In interview with Público, he gave examples of the areas in which he believes it will be important for his party to negotiate: sovereignty, foreign policy, defence, security, consolidation of the reform of the State and reforms of the political and electoral system and justice.
“The first major strategic challenge is the issue of demography, which is linked to the issue of migration,” he said – and on this subject, he warned that, in his opinion: “Dr Luís Montenegro’s approach is the antithesis of what the country is obliged to do under the Migration Pact.“
“There needs to be this constructive dialogue”, he insisted, because if the country opts for the model of migration traced by the incoming government (one of control/ attracting qualified entrants) “we would be talking about the bankruptcy of the economy in vital sectors and serious problems in the financing of Social Security.”
This latter issue has been flagged in recent studies on Portugal’s immigration picture: incoming nationalities are paying much more into the Social Security system than they are getting out of it.
José Luís Carneiro also referred to what he said were “signs of a certain haughtiness in Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s inauguration speech, particularly in the way he addressed the PS”.
“If the President of the Republic has said that one of the main responsibilities of the new majority is to widen its political space of support – and since it was the PS that, just a few days ago, found a solution to an institutional impasse in the election of the board of the Assembly of the Republic, showing signs of great institutional maturity – for the Prime Minister to address the PS and say that he expects a party of dialogue and not a party of blockade, is relatively offensive,” he told his interviewer.
For now, the PS must continue to defend the political proposals it presented to voters in the electoral campaign, and wait, he said: “We heard a speech (on Tuesday) that has contradictory dimensions that should be clarified in the presentation of the government programme“.
“For example, the prime minister said that we can’t create the illusion that the public accounts allow us to give everything to everyone – which, from our point of view, is correct – but at the same time he promised a reduction in the tax burden and wage rises in various areas (…) how can this reduction in the tax burden be made compatible with maintaining this income agreement that was established in the context of social dialogue?”
Asked if he agrees with his party leader’s references to leading the opposition, so as not to give CHEGA political headway, he replied: “The status the people gave us was that of opposition.
“We should take it constructively, always placing at the centre of our concerns what corresponds to the priorities of the Portuguese and the country.“
Source material: LUSA (from the article in Público)
