Former Minister of Internal Affairs José Luís Carneiro argues that there is room for dialogue on the Budget and strategic areas with the government, in an interview in which he criticizes the haughtiness of the Prime Minister’s speech at the inauguration.
In an interview with Público newspaper, asked about the possibility of the PS approving the Budget for 2025, José Luís Carneiro said that there is room for dialog.
Asked about the fact that the Socialist secretary-general considered such approval “difficult”, he replied: “He [Pedro Nuno Santos] said it would be difficult [to approve the Budget]. So this means that there is room for political dialog with those who today have a relative majority in Parliament,” he said
“The Prime Minister himself, at the inauguration, called for this dialog,” he insisted.
In an interview with Público, the defeated candidate for the leadership of the Socialist Party said that the PS should be the opposition, but that there are strategic areas in which the Socialists should negotiate with the government.
“Constructive dialogue and constructive opposition are necessary, as has been assumed by the secretary general of the PS,” said the now MP, then exemplifying the areas in which he considers it important to have this negotiation: sovereignty, foreign policy, defense, security, consolidation of the reform of the state and the reforms of the political and electoral system and justice.
For José Luís Carneiro, “the first major strategic challenge is the issue of demography, which is linked to the issue of migration,” and on this subject, asked if there can be agreement, he replied: “I believe that the approach that Dr. Luís Montenegro has taken to the subject is the antithesis of what the country is obliged to do under the Migration Pact.”
“There needs to be this constructive dialogue, because if we opted for that model of migration, we would be talking about the bankruptcy of the economy in vital sectors and serious problems in the financing of Social Security,” he stressed.
In the interview, the former minister stressed that he detected “signs of a certain haughtiness in Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s inauguration speech, namely 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 said.
He insisted that the PS must continue to defend the political proposals it presented to the voters and wait, insisting: “We heard an intervention yesterday [Tuesday] that has contradictory dimensions that should be clarified in the presentation of the Government Program”.
“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 increases in various areas,” he recalled, asking: “how can this reduction in the tax burden be made compatible with maintaining this income agreement that was established in the context of social consultation?”
Asked whether he agrees with the PS secretary-general, Pedro Nuno Santos, when he says that the PS will lead the opposition so as not to give Chega such a leading role, António Costa’s former minister replied: “The status that the people gave us was that of opposition.”
“We should take it constructively, always putting at the center of our concerns what corresponds to the priorities of the Portuguese and the country,” he said.