The Prime Minister today refused to “deepen” the IRS proposal and referred to the moment when it is approved by the Council of Ministers, stressing that he governs to fulfill electoral promises and not to “open the news”.
Luís Montenegro was asked several times about the proposal to lower the personal income tax (IRS) by journalists in Madrid, at a press conference alongside his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, and he always replied that it was “neither the time nor the place to delve into this subject”.
“The tax relief measure that we presented in the Portuguese parliament last week will now be the subject of a decision by the Council of Ministers, as has also been announced, and its full scope will then be examined in detail,” he added.
Luís Montenegro also said that the Portuguese executive he leads will govern “thinking about the opening of the television channels, or the pages of the next day’s newspapers” or “towing what is being commented on in the public square with great propriety and legitimacy”.
In this regard, the Prime Minister insisted several times that “the Portuguese can rest assured” because the government will “devote all its energy” to fulfilling the promises and proposals made by the Democratic Alliance during the election campaign.
“There is no greater truth or loyalty from a government than to fulfill what it set out to do in an election campaign and that is what the Portuguese government is absolutely focused on, fulfilling the word, the commitment, the contract it established with the Portuguese people in the last election campaign,” he said.
The controversy surrounding the IRS reduction measures arose after the Finance Minister said in an interview with RTP on Friday that the 1.5 billion euros of tax relief mentioned by the Prime Minister during the debate on the government’s program in parliament would not be added to the 1.3 billion euros of reduction included in the State Budget for 2024 and already in force, explaining that the measure would be around 200 million euros.
