Filipe Amorim / LUSA
Luis Montenegro welcomes José Luis Carneiro
The socialist leader accuses the Government of “sovereignty” by ignoring his attempts at dialogue on issues such as health and housing.
The general secretary of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, sent five letters to the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, with proposals in the areas of health, housing, defense, justice and, more recently, to mitigate the effects of the storms that hit the country. None received a formal response of the Government, an attitude that the socialist leader considers revealing of “sovereignty” and “insensitivity”.
Speaking to the newspaper, Carneiro states that São Bento’s silence represents a blockage that is difficult to understand in structural matters. Even so, he guarantees that he will continue to present proposals, highlighting that the role of the PS involves “criticizing what is wrong, but also present alternatives”.
According to the director, the initiatives were prepared with experienced specialists and These are not “mere letters”but of concrete proposals that would justify the creation of work teams to ensure continuity in public policies.
In the area of health, recall that Montenegro admitted, in August, openness to dialogue on the creation of a hospital emergency coordination unit. However, according to Carneiro, the conversation never progressed, neither at the level of party leadership nor at the parliamentary or governmental level. “There was a declaration of intent; in practice there was no dialogue”, he points out.
The strategy of opening up to dialogue has been supported by the socialist parliamentary leader, Eurico Brilhante Dias, who rejects that institutional collaboration diminishes the supervisory role of the opposition. For socialists, participating in concrete solutions does not mean political alignmentespecially in a context where the Government does not have an absolute majority.
The political scenario gained a new framework with the election of António José Seguro for the Presidency of the Republic. In his victory speech, the new head of state called for “convergence” between parties and promised to be “demanding”. In the PS, his election is seen as a potential factor in institutional rebalancing.
Carneiro also leaves a warning to the executive so that do not put PS and Chega in the same dialogue plane. The socialist leader reaffirms his willingness to negotiate, but emphasizes that “patience has limits”.
