Montenegro accuses PS of being responsible for the impoverishment of Portugal
The president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, today blamed the PS government for Portugal being “increasingly poorer” and “at the bottom of the table”.
“We are in a cycle of galloping impoverishment, we are staying at the bottom of the table when we have everything to be at the top”, said the social democratic leader, continuing: “In Portugal, there are about two million people with an income of 554 euros or less. And many of those who earned above it is on the basis of social benefits from the State. Without it, the poverty line would reach 4.5 million Portuguese”.
Luís Montenegro was speaking at a PSD Christmas dinner in Castelo de Paiva, in the north of the Aveiro district, where he pointed out to the militants that “in all countries in Europe there was a pandemic, high rates of influence and the effects of the war in Ukraine”.
But, in these countries, he noted, “there is more hope, wealth creation, more opportunities and more jobs available” than in Portugal.
“There are not so many reasons for us to become poorer, when others are getting richer, namely the countries that compared us”, he stressed, leaving some indicators.
“From 2016 to 2021, Portugal grew by an accumulated 7.1%, but the average of the cohesion countries grew by 18.4”, he indicated.
For the leader of the largest opposition party, it is “a catastrophic picture from a social point of view” and the country is not managing to “take advantage of the opportunities and potential to turn the situation around”.
The social-democratic leader considers that the socialist government has had “all the instruments to reverse the situation in the country”.
“In 2015, the PS inherited a tidy house, a growing country, decreasing unemployment, certain public accounts and access to financing like never before in Portugal”, he recalled.
Montenegro admitted that the socialists “may even want to do well, but they can’t”.
“They don’t want to, they can’t. In 27 years, they governed 20. In the second seven it was bankruptcy and in these seven impoverishment”, he stressed.
The PSD leader guaranteed that the social democrats are “extremely committed” to preparing themselves to “govern this country”.
“To fight against something we cannot accept, which is this fatality of always having our hands pulled, bankrupt, impoverished, waiting for us to be given credit in Europe”, he said.
Montenegro stressed that “the growth of wealth is the starting point to end poverty” in Portugal.