The government has been attempting to divert attention and hide behind a populist agenda, focusing on singular topics such as the nationality law, according to BE national coordinator Mariana Mortágua. “None of the country’s problems will be solved by changing the nationality law,” she criticized.
Speaking to the Lusa agency ahead of the state of the nation debate scheduled for Thursday in parliament, the sole deputy emphasized the importance of preventing the government from continuing with this strategy, which she described as using people as shields to avoid addressing the country’s issues.
Mariana Mortágua expressed concern over recent news leading up to the debate, including rising housing prices, the state’s inability to manage heatwaves, and severe problems in the National Health Service with emergency rooms closing.
“A woman lost a child on the way to an emergency room due to several complications from a system that the government set up, which doesn’t provide solutions for people. We have INEM without helicopters capable of assisting in emergencies,” she highlighted.
The sole BE deputy believes the minority PSD/CDS-PP government has failed to address these issues and predicted they may worsen, noting that the government has already allocated funds for increased military spending while lacking rescue helicopters in INEM.
Mariana Mortágua argued that BE’s focus is “to recentralize the debate” on issues such as healthcare, housing, and salaries since these are central to citizens’ daily lives.
She acknowledged that opposition today is “more difficult than it once was” within a parliamentary framework where the left is diminished and BE is represented by only one deputy. Nonetheless, Mortágua stressed that this does not mean the opposition is less necessary.
According to the BE leader, opposition should involve coordinated initiatives among the various left-wing and “progressive field” parties, demonstrating to people that there is an alternative to the current government, and building “an alliance” between parliamentary representation and civil society.
When asked about the party’s priorities after the parliamentary break over summer, Mariana Mortágua reiterated her concerns on housing, health, public services, and wages.
“And escape, and recentralize, moving away from the cultural war the right wants to start to prevent solving any of the problems faced by workers,” she added.
The state of the nation debate, the first since the XXV Constitutional Government took office, is set for Thursday and will include the presence of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and the rest of the government cabinet.
