The program of the XXV Constitutional Government has been submitted to the Assembly of the Republic this Saturday. The document was delivered by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Carlos Abreu Amorim, to the first Vice-President of the parliament, the Social Democrat Teresa Morais, in the reception room of the President of the Assembly, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco.
“It is a four-year program based on a transformative agenda, a plan to reform the country. This Government aims, beyond stability, to transform the country in the most important areas,” he stated to journalists in Parliament.
Citing Fernando Pessoa, Carlos Abreu Amorim expressed the Executive’s readiness to transform the country: “As he said, ‘Anyone who wants to understand the future must be prepared to create it.'”
The program of the XXV Constitutional Government reaffirms the executive’s commitment to dialogue with opposition parties and within social concertation frameworks but emphasizes that the mandate’s goal is to “transform Portugal.”
According to the minister, the four-year plan aims to enhance employment and safeguard savings, with “increased investment over four years in Defense,” as well as a focus on modernizing Public Administration.
In addition to the previously declared ‘war on bureaucracy,’ the plan also seeks, among other measures, to enhance economic activity and create wealth, “without which none of the social policies would be possible.”
Carlos Abreu Amorim noted that the debate on the program would take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, highlighting that the Government is subject to the “scrutiny of parliamentary groups, and all details will be addressed by ministers of the respective portfolios. The fundamental idea is indeed the transformative agenda.”
“We will seek consensus, we will establish dialogue with everyone. It is a program for all Portuguese people, and it should preferably be implemented and executed according to the ideas of those who can find consensus in its definition: identifying common and divergent points,” he expressed.
The minister was asked whether this consensus would include the Socialist Party and Chega, indicating that the dialogue would be with “everyone, everyone, everyone: quoting someone much better than us,” he said, referring to Pope Francis.
When confronted about the motion of rejection proposed by the Communist Party, the minister stated that other parliamentary forces will have to perform their scrutiny but also take responsibility, “with what they have already stated, which we believe will be achieved, which is the stability desired by the Portuguese people for the transformative agenda to succeed.”
The AD coalition (PSD/CDS-PP) won the legislative elections without an absolute majority, electing 91 deputies out of 230, of which 89 are from PSD and two from CDS-PP.
Chega became the second-largest parliamentary force, with 60 deputies, followed by the PS with 58, IL with nine, Livre with six, PCP with three, and BE, PAN, and JPP with one each.
Luís Montenegro has been prime minister since April 2 of last year, following an eight-year governance cycle of the PS.
[Updated at 13h15]
