“The government intends to reduce taxes for corporate giants and the wealthy, making them richer, so they can purchase more properties and houses,” stated the leftist leader. This, she claimed, would financially strain a middle class that can barely make ends meet.
On the day the Government’s Program was submitted to the Assembly of the Republic, Mariana Mortágua, meeting in Porto with leaders and supporters of various European leftist parties, accused the executive and Luís Montenegro of increasing the burden on the middle class in terms of education, health, and public services.
“All of this to benefit the rich while blaming immigrants for housing and employment issues,” she added.
Speaking at the closing panel “Forces for Change — From the Streets to Parliament” at the ELA Congress — European Left Alliance for the People and the Planet, held Friday and today at Alfândega do Porto, Mortágua declared: “Our duty, comrades, is to demonstrate, by all means possible, that the right will not better anyone’s life, but that improving life for everyone is achievable.”
Mortágua emphasized the need to reveal that adjusting unemployment benefits to motivate workforce entry means reducing their value or access duration, effectively forcing individuals to accept jobs with salaries lower than the benefits they paid into when employed.
Additionally, according to the leftist, “easing the fiscal progressivity of corporate tax means” cutting taxes on profits over one and a half million euros and undermining the rental market, facilitating evictions.
Mortágua criticized measures related to education and health, accusing the PSD-led government of aiming to dismantle universal, free public services, which she described as fundamental to democracy and remnants of a dismantled welfare state.
She concluded her remarks predicting that future far-right representatives might claim the greatest achievement in Portugal was the Government Program of Luís Montenegro, supported by the Socialist Party.
The Program of the 25th Constitutional Government, following the May 18 legislative victories by the AD coalition (PSD/CDS), was presented today at the Assembly of the Republic by Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Carlos Abreu Amorim, and will be debated on Tuesday and Wednesday.
During the post-meeting press conference, Presidency Minister António Leitão Amaro labeled the document “an ambitious program to transform the country,” structured around 10 priorities including state reform, regulated immigration, income increase, localized security, housing, and defense.
The PCP has announced a rejection motion, expected to be defeated as it lacks support from PSD, CDS, Chega, and PS.
