The secretary-general of the PS today accused the prime minister of having “blackmailed” and “victimized” him in his speech to inaugurate the XXIV Constitutional Government, and reiterated that his party will be a “responsible opposition”.
At a press conference at the PS national headquarters in Lisbon, Pedro Nuno Santos considered that Luís Montenegro had made “a speech without ambition, without vision, without a plan for Portugal”.
“The speech we saw yesterday [Tuesday] was much more focused on the opposition than on Portugal, it really seemed to be building a discourse, a narrative to be used in a possible election campaign,” he accused.
For the PS leader, instead of “seeing a government of action, which wants to solve Portugal’s problems, we saw an executive “of victimization”.
“It’s probably what we’re going to see over the next few months: a government of victimization, of whining, of complaining, of not letting them work, of not letting them do what they want to do,” he stressed.
Pedro Nuno Santos recalled that, in the parliamentary elections, the AD won 28.84% of the votes and the PS 28%, which, in a “universe of six million and 400 thousand voters”, represents a difference of “around 50 thousand votes, two fewer MPs”.
The secretary-general of the PS thus considered that, in view of these results, the government cannot be “fixated on waiting for the PS to come and solve the problem or give the majority that the Portuguese people decided not to give to AD”, considering that this is precisely what the coalition did during the election for the presidency of the Assembly of the Republic.
“What we saw yesterday, which many interpreted correctly, because we interpreted it in the same way, was a challenge and a blackmail of the PS, as if the PS were obliged to support a government that has a program, or that wants to implement a program with which the PS disagrees,” he said.
Stressing that the election results require AD to have “respect for all parties, especially the PS”, Pedro Nuno Santos pointed out that if Luís Montenegro’s “‘no is no’ is to be taken seriously”, so is what he himself said on election night.
“The PS will be the opposition, it will be a responsible opposition, obviously: we will vote for what we agree with and against what we don’t agree with,” he reiterated.
