On the day of the national debate on the State of the Nation, Rui Rio expressed his concerns in an interview with Rádio Renascença, lamenting that these debates have lost significance and now focus on “populist” topics rather than the country’s “future.”
The Social Democrat said, “The debate is always a situational discussion with trends that are often populist, not to mention actually populist,” emphasizing that it should be “a serious discussion on the bottlenecks preventing the country’s development, the paths we should take, and the objectives we aim to reach in 10, 15, and 20 years,” essentially creating “a debate focused on the future of the Nation.”
Aware that immigration would be a key topic, Rui Rio cautiously but clearly showed support for the amendment to the immigration law passed this Wednesday in Parliament.
He stated, “The direction the Government is taking with this topic is absolutely clear to me. Immigration has to be, I’ll use a term I shouldn’t, necessity that causes shouting and stupidity exhibitions, a business in the good sense of the word. What business means, is that both the immigrant and we benefit. It is not necessarily a bad concept. Some businesses are bad, but this is a good one,” indicating the subject should be addressed “carefully.”
He further argued that the opinion on this matter should not be influenced by political alignment, as it is an area that “needs regulation.”
“This is not about following Agenda A, B, or C. It is about doing what needs to be done for the country. There’s a primitive rationale that says, ‘Because Chega defends it, we can’t,’ or ‘because PCP supports it, we can’t.’ That is unintelligent,” he added.
Regarding healthcare, he expressed reluctance to support the notion of transferring the National Health Service (SNS) to the private sector. He asserted, “There’s a difference between advocating for private sector collaboration as an SNS supplement, which I always have, and the SNS being so inadequate that we start relying on the private sector for everything.”
In the same interview, Rui Rio emphasized that the government needs time for its measures to take effect. Specifically referring to state reform, the former PSD leader mentioned that it “cannot be achieved in one legislative session” and called for “calmness and intelligence.”
“The minister might do excellent work, but we might still take time to feel its impact. As soon as criticism starts with comments like ‘he does nothing,’ they kill progress. The chosen minister has the necessary conditions, though not a superhuman, but a human with the right conditions and knowledge to do it right,” he defended.
