Lisbon, Oct. 10, 2024 (Lusa) - The prime minister said today that the PSD/CDS-PP government is enjoying being in power, not for "personal fulfilment, but for the common good", saying that it is working to build "a new Portugal".
Luís Montenegro was speaking at the presentation of the award to the Lusolav consortium of the concession for the first of three phases (Porto-Oiâ) of the high-speed railway line between Lisbon and Porto, and did not fail to refer to the context of the day in which this presentation took place.
"It's comforting to be here after about half a year in the office, on a day that's important, it's budget day, but even on budget day, there's more to life than the budget; there's a context of transversal governance," he emphasised.
PM Montenegro recalled that the week began with the Todos os Santos Hospital launch and announced that it would end on Friday with a trip to the fire zone.
"Tomorrow, the government and I will have the opportunity to bring to the lives of some Portuguese people the contribution of the Government of the Republic to restoring their situation before the fires that we experienced less than a month ago," he said.
Montenegro argued that "this is indeed a government that is moving at high speed, it's a government that is in a hurry, but not rushed", saying that politicians exist "to decide on behalf of the people" with the conviction that their decisions have a medium and long-term impact.
"And we love being politicians, we love being in government - in the good sense that it involves, it's not about personal fulfilment, it's in the good sense of deciding with the common good in mind - thinking about what the country will be like, what our community will be like after us," he said.
The prime minister reiterated that "with all the vicissitudes that surround governance", the government is happy to "be governing the country, but with a truly transformative spirit".
"This Portugal is a new Portugal, this Portugal is a different Portugal," he said, repeating, as he has done on other occasions, that the country's future is built “with a competitive public administration that says it will provide the main public services,” but also with companies, emphasising the social dialogue agreement that was signed.
On the sidelines of the ceremony, Minister Miguel Pinto Luz was asked about the budget and said he was "convinced that the PS would make it viable", considering that the government had "fully complied" with the PS's prerequisites.
Regarding TAP, the minister for infrastructure and housing said that "the privatisation process was never in the budget".
"It's exactly what the negotiations with the Socialist Party asked for. When we're negotiating when one party asks for 100, and the other party gives exactly 100, I don't see any other way but for that process to be unrefusable," he said.
Confronted with the position of the PS, which has yet to decide whether or not to make the 2025 budget viable, he replied: "The timings are now those of the PS, and we are calmly, with enormous humility, waiting for that moment."
The budget will be submitted to parliament today and voted on in general on 31 October. Its approval is still uncertain, as the 80 PSD and CDS-PP MPs are insufficient to ensure viability.
In practice, only the PS's abstention or a vote in favour of Chega will ensure that the budget is approved.
SMA/ADB // ADB.
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