Montenegro’s first Christmas in an “oasis”

The prime minister says that 2024 was a turning point and assures that the “new policy of lowering taxes and increasing salaries and pensions” is being carried out “with rigor and fiscal balance”. The opposition says that Luís Montenegro lives in an “oasis”, alienated from reality.

In his first Christmas message as Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro includes in its priorities for the future the promotion of a “regulated immigration” and the fight against crime (without, however, connecting the two themes), along with the reinforcement of services health, education, transport and the execution of “largest investment in public housing since the 90s”.

The prime minister considered that the PSD/CDS-PP government that he has led since April 2 “brought new priorities and new options”. “We did not come to look at or criticize the past. We came to take care of the present and build the future”, he stated.

Montenegro reviewed several executive decisions, such as general salary increases and several careers, specific measures for young people and the elderly, and left a guarantee on public accounts.

“This new policy of lowering taxes and valuing salaries and pensions is carried out with budget rigor and balance. And it is an element of economic and social policy”, he said.

In the most forward-looking part, Montenegro stated that the Government intends to “continue to reinforce health services and guarantee a public school quality, from daycare to university, without forgetting professional and technological education”.

Improving public transport and implementing “the biggest investment in public housing” since the 90s are other promises, in a message that also refers to the immigration and security policies.

“We will promote regulated immigration to welcome those who choose to live and work in our country with dignity and humanism”, said Montenegro.

Further ahead, the prime minister promised to combat “economic crime, drug trafficking and violent crime”.

“We are one of the safest countries in the world, but we have to safeguard this asset so as not to lose it”, he reiterated.

The first Christmas in an “oasis”

Both on the left and on the right, Montenegro’s first Christmas message as prime minister was not spared reviews.

The parliamentary leader of the PS, Alexandra Leitãostated that the Prime Minister’s Christmas message “contrasts with reality”with the measures taken by the Government that “ride a perception of insecurity that is not real and takes advantage of it to enter a drift of totalitarian populism”.

Also on the hot topic of the moment, the Bloco de Esquerda stated that the Government should “apologize to the country” and recognize that the police operation on the 19th in Martim Moniz, in Lisbon, was “a politically motivated action”.

“The government recognizes that Portugal is a safe country, however, treating people with dignity and humanism is not pushing them against the wall as we have seen in the operations of recent days,” he said. Aliyah Beggarfrom the BE political commission, in reaction to today’s Christmas message from the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro.

“We entered 2024 and left 2024 with a crisisboth in housing and health, is increasingly aggravated. The Left Bloc has presented different proposals and we know that it would take a different path to what has been done”, he added.

The PCP also considered that, in the Christmas message, Luís Montenegro described “a country unlike” the real one and that “does not fit with the reality and difficulties of millions of Portuguese people”.

Jaime Togamember of the Political Commission of the Central Committee of the PCP, considered that the message of Luís Montenegro “does not bode wellbecause if the problems are not identified, one will not be able to solve the problems as there is a need to do”.

Already president of the Liberal Initiative, Rui Rochaaccused the prime minister of having done “a speech far removed from the country’s needs”.

For Rui Rocha, Luís Montenegro spoke country that “is an oasis”but “it’s an oasis where only the Prime Minister and the Government of the Democratic Alliance (AD) livethe Portuguese live in conditions that are not those that appear in the oasis that the Prime Minister wants to present”.

Rui Rocha also listed the Government’s “clear failures”: “Health, Education, I saw the PSD’s reaction to the Prime Minister’s speech, but they talk about Health and education as if something had improved, everything is in the balance. the same or worse.”

“How is it possible to present something in a speech in which it is said that something has improved in Health and Education? These are clear failures of this AD Government. Then housing. We now have news that housing rose by 10% in the 3rd quarter”; pointed.

Asking “how is it possible to make a self-complimentary speech when nothing essential has changed and many things have gotten worse”, Rui Rocha also mentioned the need to reduce the tax burden and carry out reforms in the State, considering that tonight’s message denotes the lack of capacity of the current Government.