ZAP // António Cotrim, Carlos Barroso / LUSA
Presidential candidates Henrique Gouveia e Melo and António José Seguro
Eurico Brilhante Dias guarantees that Seguro fought against pension cuts during the “troika”, contrary to what the admiral claims.
The presidential candidate Gouveia e Melo joined his opponent António José Insurance to the court of the value of pensions during the period of “troika” and promised that, if elected, he will veto any decree in this regard.
“With me, no decree-law or anything will be passed that would compromise the pensions of older people”, declared the former Chief of Staff of the Navy to journalists.
In an allusion to the period of financial assistance to Portugal (2011/2014) – when António José Seguro served as secretary general of the PS and when the PSD/CDS Government of Passos Coelho had an absolute majority in parliament -, Gouveia e Melo considered that “there are things that politicians cannot accept”, because “they are unworthy”, like cutting the value of pensions.
“People who no longer had the capacity to resist, their pensions were cut. This cut was supported by someone from the left and did not even need to support, because there was a majority [PSD/CDS] in the Assembly of the Republic. That will never happen to me,” he declared.
“It wasn’t like that”
The socialist parliamentary leader accused presidential candidate Gouveia e Melo of “falsifying history” by associating Seguro with the pension cuts during the “troika”, considering that only his tenacity prevented temporary cuts from becoming permanent.
“In politics, everything is not worth it, much less the falsification of history. I understand that there is an electoral context that is not going well for the candidate Gouveia e Melo, but not everything is worth it. This is a absolute falsification of history”, accused, in statements to the Lusa agency, Eurico Brilhante Dias.
According to the PS parliamentary leader, “if there was a personality that, throughout that difficult period, was contra the salary and pension cuts, was António José Seguro”.
“I remember well, from moment zero, the essential fight was not to have any more cuts and, more than that, not to turn those that were temporary into permanent ones. And only the tenacity, the effort, the sense of State of Dr. António José Seguro was what prevented this from happening”, he said.
Eurico Brilhante Dias said that he was “an actor who had the opportunity to witness this period of history up close, when the PS was the opposition and a minority opposition in parliament” and Seguro opposed these cuts.
“It was like this in the discussion of the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Budget, and I must say that, If it weren’t for the tenacity of Doctor António José Seguro, perhaps there would have been an agreement for a permanent cut in salaries and pensionswhich was what the PSD-CDS coalition with the troika wanted to do, including in the discussion, in 2013, following the proposal of the President of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, for an agreement, then, called national salvation”, he said.
Gouveia e Melo must “realize that in politics not everything goes and that the electoral environment does not justify everything”.
“The falsification of history is not an electoral argument, in fact, the falsification of history only contributes to degrading the political environment and degrading institutions”, he condemned.
