During a session in Braga, where he addressed party members about the State Budget for 2026, Carneiro highlighted the increase in waiting lists for cancer surgeries and the “chaos” in emergency departments across Setúbal Peninsula and Greater Lisbon.
“Healthcare is a complete failure,” he asserted.
The Minister of Health announced today the creation of regional emergency services, a move that Carneiro, leader of the PS, views as an “admission of the failure of the Government’s plan” presented a year and a half ago.
“It failed entirely; the minister failed, those responsible for those commitments failed. As we can see, when we proposed a management plan to the Government for emergency hospital services, we were right, because the Government failed, and the proof of that failure is that we’re already on the fourth president of the National Institute of Medical Emergency,” criticized José Luís Carneiro.
The Secretary-General of the PS pointed out that a reform with the executive structure of the SNS, led by Fernando Araújo, was underway, and “the first thing” the current Government did was “decapitate that structure.”
“What did that achieve? Instability and incompetence, the inability to meet people’s needs,” he noted.
Regarding the proposed State Budget for 2026, Carneiro stated that “it is not credible,” arguing that it underestimates expenses and inflates revenue projections.
He also mentioned that the Government intends to sell public assets in Lisbon and Porto to raise funds, which he views as “a bad sign.”
For José Luís Carneiro, this amounts to “losing the rings with the fingers.”
Nonetheless, the PS will abstain from voting on the Budget, ensuring the Government has no excuses for not fulfilling its commitments to the Portuguese.
“The Government will not be able to use the PS vote as an excuse,” he asserted.
