“We have changed immigration rules, we want more security in the streets, more authority for the police, a justice system that works. For us, the rule of law, respect for rights and the law, is the primary value of democracy. If we lose the foundation of the rule of law, we lose the respect of the people,” stated the Prime Minister and leader of the PSD.
Luís Montenegro was speaking in Madrid at the congress of Spain’s Popular Party (PP), which runs until Sunday, as one of two international guests at the event, alongside the president of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber.
The PSD leader, speaking in Spanish, said that the years of socialist governments in Portugal “stalled the country and its development” and had “an irresponsible immigration policy, without regulation and control.”
Montenegro further accused the PS governments of having radicalized, fostering “fracture and division,” degrading public health and education services, having no housing policy, systematically increasing taxes, and aligning with the far-left and far-right in the political corridors to topple the previous executive he led.
“But the people joined forces in the streets to legitimize us and approved the motion that matters most, the people’s confidence,” he declared.
“Today we are reforming Portugal and we are not in government to maintain power at any cost,” he assured.
He added that he only wanted to govern with an election victory and that when his integrity and that of his family were questioned, he presented a motion of confidence in parliament, in apparent references to current Spanish politics, though without specifically mentioning the situation of the socialist Pedro Sánchez’s executive, which is undergoing a crisis due to corruption suspicions and depends on a coalition of eight parties in parliament.
Montenegro claimed that, like Spain’s PP, Portugal’s PSD is “the people’s party,” the “true defender of the welfare state,” aiming for sound public finances and economic growth goals, having twice reduced taxes and planning to do so again, and having recently changed immigration rules.
Expressing certainty that the PP will lead the next government in Spain, Montenegro stated that this scenario would be best for Spain and the Iberian Peninsula.
The PP is re-electing Alberto Núñez Feijóo as party president today, in a congress where he is the sole candidate and has faced no leadership criticisms.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo convened this extraordinary congress, arguing it was necessary to prepare the party for the end of ‘sanchismo,’ which he considers to be in its “final countdown.”
First elected PP leader in 2022, Feijóo won the latest national legislative elections in July 2023 but did not become prime minister as he failed to secure an absolute majority in parliament to approve his election to the office.
Since leading the PP, the party has also won the regional and municipal elections of May 2023, the European elections of 2024, and the regional elections in Galicia last year.
Besides being the largest party in Spain’s parliament, the PP leads the regional governments of 13 out of the 19 autonomous regions and cities in the country.
