ANDThis position, which goes against the idea of ​​”Portugal carro broom” advocated by PSD leader Luís Montenegro, was assumed by António Costa at the closing of the evocative session of seven years of socialist government led by him, which took place at the River Station of Terreiro do Paço, in Lisbon.

“It’s been seven very intense years, since the threat of reinforcement against Portugal, the need to stabilize the financial system, exit the European Union’s Excessive Deficit Procedure, face natural disasters and a pandemic, now live a war and a cycle of survival like it has not been crossed for 30. But it was seven years in which we presented results and left marks”, began by sustaining the prime minister.

In terms of economic growth, António Costa defended the thesis that in the 15 years prior to 2015 the country grew by an average of 0.2%, while in the last seven “it grew by an average of 2%, that is, ten times more”.

After noting that the unemployment rate has dropped to less than half from 2015 to the present, he argued that Portugal has converged with the European Union average in all the years of its governments, taking the case of 2020, when the country had the peak of covid-19 pandemic.

“Growing above average means getting closer to the most organized countries within the framework of the European Union and, according to the European Commission and international organizations, we will continue to grow above the European average in 2023 and 2024. When we grow above the European average, we even get closer to the most associated countries, to the front line”, observed.

According to the data presented by António Costa regarding GDP per capita, since 2015, the gap between Portugal and France has increased by 2.6 percentage points.

Yes, we are growing more than Germany, France and Spain – and it is in relation to these countries that we are getting closer”, he said, at the end of a day in which PSD, Iniciativa Liberal and Chega criticized the socialist executive by the prospect of Portugal being soon overtaken by Romania.

Among the seven topics addressed by the socialist leader in his long speech, after that of growth, he placed that of the right accounts, stressing that Portugal is currently paying less in interest on the debt and that families pay two million less in IRS in relation to taxes applied in 2015.

As a third topic, António Costa chose income and social justice, highlighting here that the minimum wage grew by 78% over the lifetime of his executives and that pensions always rose above the legal average.

In the fourth area, that of suggestions, the PS leader highlighted the reduction of early school leaving to less than half of 2015, standing at present below 6%.

“There are more students in Higher Education, there has been an increase in scholarships and we have successively broken records in attracting foreign investment”, he said.

In the fifth area, health, the secretary general of the PS advocated that the allocation of the SNS will total 12.29 million euros in 2023 – an increase of 56% compared to 2015.

“There are 23,542 more workers, of which 18% more are doctors (including interns) and 9,775 more nurses, which represents an increase of 25%. medical consultations in primary health care, over 644,000 medical consultations in hospital health care and over 83,000 surgeries”, he defended.

With regard to climate change, the sixth area, António Costa said that the European Commission considers that Portugal is the Member State that is in the best position to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050.

In the seventh and final area, that of state reform, the prime minister highlighted the issue of security, saying that his governments invested “five times more in security forces than right-wing governors”.

“In justice, there is a reduction in the number of pending cases”, he also declared, before seeking to highlight the decentralization processes and the “democratization” of the coordination commissions.

[Notícia atualizada às 23h32]

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