Is IL becoming radicalized or is it all “courage”?

Mariana Leitão is very complaining about the other parties: “all our proposals are always failed”. Liberal leader accuses prime minister of “lack of courage”.

This Wednesday, the president rejected the prime minister’s thesis that the leader is radicalizing her party, considering that Luís Montenegro instead intends to hide the increase in spending by 17 billion euros.

Speaking to journalists, at the end of a Christmas snack in parliament, Mariana Leitão made a positive assessment of the first six months of his party leadership.

The liberal president stated that one of IL’s main priorities is reducing taxes and said that, during the debate on the Budget for 2026, she presented numerous proposals “that” for the PSD.

Faced with the prime minister’s accusation that he radicalized IL, the party that proposed the Government’s State Budget for 2026, the president of the liberals began by indicating that her political force has been accused of presenting high-cost proposals in the fiscal field.

“But I will just remember that, since Luís Montenegro has been Prime Minister, public spending has increased by 17 billion euros”, he again pointed out, after having said that the Government did so.

“Now, this is a value much higher than all IL’s proposals. When they accuse us of radicalism to justify their own incapacity, or their lack of couragethis is just a way of trying, deep down, to disguise these characteristics. Unfortunately, in many matters, we have seen that this is how the Government behaves”, countered the president of the liberals.

Mariana Leitão argued that there is a word that characterizes her first six months as president of IL: “Courage”.

“Courage is something that we have tried to bring to parliament. We have been very vocal in several areas and have strenuously defended the policies that we know are what the country needs”, he defended.

Mariana Leitão has been putting a lot of pressure on the AD government led by Luís Montenegro. Last month, to the president of the PSD about the formation of a PSD/Chega municipal executive in , which he considered contradict its position of “no it’s not”. And the PSD “plays socialists in the morning and populists in the afternoon”.

“Housing? All our proposals fail”

In addition to ideas regarding lower taxes, the president of IL highlighted the measures defended by her party in the area of housing.

“We know that it is a social scourge. Unfortunately, many people face difficulties in being able to buy or rent a house. We need to adopt policies that guarantee that there are more houses on the market. Unfortunately, there too, all our proposals are always rejected by the various parties”, he lamented.

“Nationality law? There is room”

Questioned about how to exceed the norms by the Constitutional Court in relation to the decree that reviews the nationality lawa diploma that IL voted in favor of, Mariana Leitão argued that, now, parliament has work to carry out in a specialized capacity, where the various topics will be debated.

“Obviously, the Constitutional Court’s ruling itself will also be subject to analysis. IL is always available to contribute constructively to solutions”, he declared.

The IL president later warned that “not all norms were considered unconstitutional”.

“There are questions raised by the Constitutional Court because of indeterminate concepts, which gives perfect scope for carrying out specialized work in order to improve the new decree, guaranteeing it a little more definition”, he added.

Remember that IL also joined AD and Chega to “overcome the impasses” in the Foreigners Law.

Asked whether the vote taken by IL on matters such as foreigners and nationality laws does not contradict liberal principles in favor of the free movement of capital and workers, Mariana Leitão argued that Portugal has a problem of deregulation in the entry of immigrants.

A problem that he said was caused by the previous socialist Government, with the adoption of the expression of interest regime, or extinction of the SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service).

“There must be entry rules, at the same time it must also be ensured that the needs of the economy are being met and there are enough people entering to meet these needs”, he replied.