The leader of the PS, in statements to journalists upon arrival for a campaign event in Macedo de Cavaleiros, Bragança district, addressed a recent announcement by Luís Montenegro regarding the supplementary increase for the lowest pensions. He previously challenged the Government to make it a permanent increase.
“I believe that now, during these 15 days [of the campaign], we will see a kind of drip-feed of electoral measures leading up to the elections. I think that is what will happen because if the Government had any restraint, it wouldn’t have done what it did in the last legislative elections in Mercado do Bolhão,” he criticized.
He acknowledged that “the Government is obliged to duties of impartiality in the exercise of its functions,” especially concerning the announcements made by the Prime Minister in a recent municipal campaign action. Carneiro anticipates that “similar announcements will continue from now until the elections.”
“That being said, I want to tell the Prime Minister not to feel inhibited, for example, to ensure that the extraordinary supplement for the elderly becomes a permanent increase for the lowest pensions, those up to 522 euros,” he insisted, ensuring PS support for such a measure.
The PS secretary-general has calculated this measure’s cost, stating it will amount to 400 million euros, equivalent to a one-point reduction in IRC.
Carneiro also accused Montenegro of “not speaking to the majority of Portuguese people,” citing housing measures as an example.
“Two thousand three hundred euros is the net salary of a department director in a Municipal Council, which is already an elite of the mid-level state administration,” he compared, referring to the moderate rent value pointed out by the Government.
