At the opening of the PSD/CDS-PP parliamentary sessions, which conclude on Tuesday in Évora, Hugo Soares confirmed that his party will seek “the greatest possible consensus” to approve changes to the Nationality Law, set for discussion in September in parliament. In doing so, he refuted accusations from the PS, who have alleged that the government is falling into the hands of the far-right in this matter.
“The PS was the one who ended the consensus on the Nationality Law matters in Portugal, not us. The last revisions of the Nationality Law were done by the PS alone or with the far-left in Portugal, abandoning the historical consensus they had with the PSD,” he charged.
Hugo Soares also criticized PS Secretary-General José Luís Carneiro, who argued that the state should return the 3.2 billion euros injected into TAP to taxpayers following the announcement of the reprivatization of 49.9% of the company by the current PSD/CDS-PP executive.
“Hearing the PS Secretary-General call for recovering the 3.2 billion euros they injected during the privatization of 49.9% of TAP’s share capital is, to say the least, tragically comical,” he remarked.
On one hand, the PSD parliamentary leader stated that the PS should start by apologizing to the Portuguese people.
“Because the decision to invest, deposit, pour 3.2 billion euros into TAP was made by the PS with the full support of the former Secretary-General of the PS, whom the current one supported,” he said, referring to Pedro Nuno Santos.
On the other hand, he also found José Luís Carneiro’s statement comical.
“Demanding that this privatization could recover the 3.2 billion euros they deposited implied saying, roughly speaking, that the PS evaluated TAP in its entirety at about 6.4 billion euros, or that it was worth one, two, or three times more than Air France,” he criticized.
“Either it’s political combat for political combat, without criterion, without rigor, or it’s a clear incompetence of the Socialist Party Secretary-General,” he asserted.
During the parliamentary sessions held in the week of the state of the nation debate, Hugo Soares reflected on improvements in the country compared to a year ago, including public schools, security forces and services, and healthcare, among others.
“A year ago, as difficult as it might be for many to admit, we had more closed emergency departments, a worse National Health Service, longer wait times in emergencies (…) There are also more reports about closed emergencies because they started being published with specific times and hours so people do not face closed hospital doors. That’s the only reason there are more reports about closed emergencies,” he argued.
Hugo Soares also highlighted some commitments that he feels the PSD/CDS-PP government has already fulfilled after just a month in office, including the partial privatization of TAP, the reduction of IRS, the ban on cell phones for younger students, and the revision of the citizenship curriculum.
“We do not have ideological complexes. What we do not accept is that public school becomes a means to impose specific ideologies and orientations. We stand for freedom,” he declared.
