“If there is good content in the State Budget, it is not known; everything known about the State Budget is bad,” stated Fabian Figueiredo, national leader and former parliamentary leader of BE.
The Bloco de Esquerda leader spoke to journalists after a meeting with government members at the Assembly of the Republic, in which the party coordinator and sole deputy, Mariana Mortágua, participated remotely as she is part of a humanitarian flotilla heading to Gaza.
According to the former deputy, the government committed to excluding “labor matters” from the budget proposal, with Figueiredo advocating that any changes to the Labor Code should be discussed in parliament with a separate bill.
Fabian Figueiredo also criticized that the first State Budget presented by the PSD/CDS-PP government last year “was responsible for deepening the housing crisis” and stated that the executive “continues in denial” on this matter.
“It even ignores the recommendations of the European Commission, which highlights the need to take measures to lower housing prices, namely implementing rent caps as BE has advocated,” he noted, also supporting the regulation of tourism.
According to BE, advocating for the right of citizens to have access to affordable housing “is basic common sense, evident to everyone except the Government.”
Concerning the National Health Service (SNS), the BE argues that “all the news the Government has publicized is negative and the reality continues to confront the Portuguese with a service that does not respond.”
The former deputy stated that Luís Montenegro’s minority executive intends “to hastily revisit the foreigners’ law” after its initial rejection by the Constitutional Court.
“What is important is that the Government should be quick to resolve the housing crisis and take effective measures, resolve the health crisis with functioning solutions, and address the shortage of teachers in public schools. These are the urgencies, and it is here that the Government needs to act quickly instead of legislating for spectacle and social alarmism,” he criticized.
On the international front, Fabian Figueiredo praised the executive for condemning the Russian Federation after the incident where Russian drones entered Polish airspace, hoping that the Government “also takes a firm stance against attacks on boats on humanitarian missions.”
The Bloco de Esquerda leader was referring to the incident on the 9th, involving a Portuguese-flagged ship part of a humanitarian flotilla heading to Gaza, carrying party coordinator Mariana Mortágua, who claimed the vessel was attacked by drones.
