Lisbon, Oct. 30, 2024 (Lusa) - The prime minister argued on Wednesday that the government is making a "great effort" to keep young people in Portugal, insisting on the Young Persons' Income Tax (IRS Jovem), which has been criticised by the Left Bloc (BE), and rejected "whistling to the side as many have done for many years".
"Alongside this [IRS Jovem], with all the measures in the fields of education, health, housing and mobility, we are making a great effort to ensure that young people have a future in Portugal. We're not going to keep whistling by the wayside like you and other MPs with great responsibilities in this house (parliament) have done for years, who haven't managed to stop this, which is one of the serious problems we have in Portugal," accused the head of the executive.
This position was advocated by Luís Montenegro during the debate on the government's proposal for the 2025 state budget in parliament, after he was confronted by the leader of the BE, Mariana Mortágua, with the fact that the IRS Jovem benefits young people up to the age of 35, which includes some football players.
"It's a measure that practically leaves the incomes of the majority of young people who earn €1,000 unchanged - often not even €1,000 - and which will mainly benefit the richest, including footballers, who have been the amusement of the media in recent days to indicate which young footballers with millionaire salaries are going to benefit from these policies," she criticised.
In his response, the prime minister rejected the fact that he was "thinking of footballers" when he put forward the measure - whose formulation in the draft state budget for 2025 ended up being closer to the current one, designed by the previous Socialist Party (PS) government - and emphasised that there is a limit to the benefit of €28,000.
Montenegro also recalled the ‘Return’ programme, created by the government led by António Costa, and went back to the ‘geringonça’ (Socialist -Left Bloc coalition government) times to criticise the Bloc leader.
"The biggest tax break for footballers was the " Return " programme, which you supported with the PS and which effectively brought back top footballers to Portugal who took the opportunity to come and pay 20% tax on all their income. There wasn't even a ceiling," he criticised.
The head of the executive admitted that he doesn't know if the government's measure will have the expected results in terms of keeping young people in the country, but he said he "strongly" believes that this tax benefit "is decisive for many young people to stay in Portugal".
At the start of her speech, the BE's leader, Mariana Mortágua, began by arguing that the budget proposal presented by the PSD/CDS minority executive is ‘a trap’, advocating that the budget ‘jeopardises the future’.
She said that the multiannual framework indicates that "spending will grow less and less" and accused the government of creating a problem by implementing the rule in the Civil Service that states that in order to recruit one civil servant, another must leave.
"And so the question is very obvious: are you going to take away teachers to put INEM first aiders? Are you going to remove doctors to add teachers? And are you going to take away staff from the citizens' shop with the waiting lists, which the PSD denounced a while ago, to put doctors in? That's because this rule will only result in a lack of workers in some sector and it would be good if you told us which sector is going to lose workers," she asked.
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