Hugo Soares addressed the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, at the start of the state of the nation debate, responding to comments made moments earlier by André Ventura against the government.
André Ventura spoke about a supposed individual, Mr. João, who operates a café across from the Assembly of the Republic and who, contrary to the view presented by the Prime Minister, is reportedly dissatisfied with the government’s performance.
The leader of the PSD Parliamentary Group responded: “I investigated and found that there is no Mr. João with a café across from the Assembly of the Republic.”
“I say this for one reason only: Because it is so often that Deputy André Ventura sells illusions on TikTok, but this time he should have chosen another location, as there is no Mr. João across from the parliament,” declared Hugo Soares, receiving numerous applauses from the Social Democratic bench.
The leader of the Social Democratic bench further criticized the leader of Chega for attempting to downplay the measures announced by the Prime Minister, calling them “nonsense and fluff.”
“These were the expressions used by Deputy André Ventura, considering it nonsense and fluff to announce today an extraordinary supplement for pensioners receiving less than 1560 euros,” he pointed out.
Hugo Soares even asked whether André Ventura, “is now against the pensioners of this country?”
But the leader of the PSD Parliamentary Group went further.
“Is it fluff or nonsense to announce such a strong, determined, and serious reduction in corporate tax as the Prime Minister presented today? Is Deputy André Ventura now against small and medium-sized enterprises and wants companies to pay more taxes?” he questioned.
Further referring to the measures previously announced by Luís Montenegro, Hugo Soares addressed the leader of Chega.
“Is it nonsense to announce support for teachers’ travel aimed precisely at valuing public schools, increasing their salaries, and covering the national territory?” he added.
Subsequently, the Prime Minister found it “strange” that the leader of Chega attempted to “underestimate the scope and effects” of the measures he had announced at the opening of the state of the nation debate.
“With just the extraordinary pension supplement, we are talking about more than 2.3 million pensioners. There are around 500,000 companies paying corporate tax. Regarding the reduction in personal income tax, the target of the reduction presented to this parliament encompasses about three million households, and the support for travel covers all relocated teachers, meaning several thousand,” emphasized Luís Montenegro.
The Prime Minister also addressed prior criticisms made by André Ventura concerning access to daycare centers, noting an increase from March 2024 to last May of 9857 slots, “totaling an installed capacity of over 133,000 slots.”
“In the 2024-2025 school year, we are talking about 103 new public preschool classrooms, adding 2500 new slots, to which we now add authorization for association contracts with the private and social sector and with the private and cooperative sector. These contracts will provide 200 new classrooms and up to 12,475 slots,” he concluded.
The Prime Minister stated, “To underestimate the impact of these measures on the lives of so many people is indeed to underestimate what is essential.”
“Not to mention the increase in incomes, the reduction in taxes, the impact of the decreased corporate taxation on investment growth, which in turn creates more jobs. We are at a moment when Portugal is achieving historic milestones, a historic level of employability, and a historic unemployment rate,” he added.
[News updated at 16:37]
