“I was very happy with the result of the municipal elections, especially since my party, the PSD, had a very good result. Therefore, I am pleased,” stated Pedro Passos Coelho to journalists after speaking at the book launch of ‘Introdução ao Liberalismo’ by Miguel Morgado in Lisbon.
Regarding Suzana Garcia, whose candidacy Passos Coelho had supported but who failed to be elected mayor of Amadora, the former prime minister said it was “by a narrow margin.”
“I hope the candidate does not give up because, really, she is a force of nature, a person who, I wouldn’t say alone, but with very limited support, achieved a great result, and this should provoke reflection among those responsible,” he remarked.
When pressed by journalists to discuss other topics, Passos Coelho indicated that he had said all he wanted to say about politics in his speech at the book launch of Miguel Morgado before offering a firm statement.
“You won’t hear me talking about anything soon,” he assured, after having made five public appearances since September 25.
In his speech at Miguel Morgado’s book launch, Pedro Passos Coelho accused the PS governments led by António Costa of not implementing “a decent reform.”
He described it as “eight years of nonsense telling people they would receive plenty of what they actually didn’t have. Of course, with the PCP and BE supporting that. It’s delightful. But with disguised austerity. So, lying to the people,” he accused.
The former prime minister stated that during those years of PS governance, “the truth was not being told” and noted that this is evident now with the “dramatic insufficiency of public investment” or the situation in the National Health Service (SNS).
Then, criticizing the PS for having a “disqualified public policy” and although claiming he did not intend to discuss recent governance, Passos Coelho issued an economic warning.
“The Minister of Finance is a very competent man, and therefore I believe he has the accounts very well managed and ensures we won’t return to public deficits and public debt and all that. But my life experience also shows that there are many things that do not depend on the Minister of Finance,” he noted.
And, in what does not depend on the Minister of Finance, Passos Coelho continued, “things are not heading towards the desired outcome.”
“We should be preparing to ease the pace of economic deleveraging because what is happening in France [where the Government agreed to suspend raising the retirement age] will not end well. Magical thinking is something that has a limited duration,” he warned.
Passos Coelho acknowledged that it can be argued Portugal is better off because it has “a little less than 90% of the debt ratio.”
“Yes, but put an economic crisis on top of it, how much does the debt ratio increase? First of all, the denominator shrinks, all expenses rise, where does the debt ratio go? It’s very quick to return to a higher ratio,” he cautioned.
