“There is clearly a shift to the right by this Government and such a shift, as seen in all countries moving to the right, involves cutting social expenditures and increasing military spending,” stated Mariana Mortágua in remarks to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic.
The BE coordinator was referring to the speech of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro during the inauguration of the XXV Constitutional Government on Thursday in Lisbon. The Prime Minister announced that Portugal plans to accelerate achieving the target of 2% of GDP investment in Defense, “possibly this year,” without compromising balanced budgets or social functions.
Mariana Mortágua argued that investment in Defense has been at the expense of social spending, saying it reflects what is evident in the budgetary project of Donald Trump’s administration in the United States and that “this is what will be at stake in Portugal.”
“We have the Secretary-General demanding 5% of budgets for armaments. This cannot be done without cutting social expenditure, meaning health, Social Security, everything necessary for us to function as a society. We have serious concerns about this future budget and the direction the Government is taking,” she stated.
Regarding the structure of the XXV Constitutional Government, Mariana Mortágua criticized Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s decision to create a Ministry of State Reform, “without defining what this state reform is.”
“It is a liberal inspiration from the worst examples we have from the United States of America or Argentina,” she argued, before criticizing the appointment of former Justice Ombudsman Maria Lúcia Amaral as Minister of Internal Administration.
According to Mariana Mortágua, Maria Lúcia Amaral “has a record of opposing individual freedoms and more progressive measures, including in housing.”
“I recall that when she was the Justice Ombudsman, the current Minister of Internal Administration requested a constitutional review of the law preventing rent increases during a period of national hardship. This is not a random choice,” she asserted, also criticizing the discontinuation of an autonomous Ministry of Culture.
