The deputy general secretary of the PS this Saturday challenged the leader of the PSD to clarify “once and for all” his relationship with the extreme right, warning that the social democrats risk being “the broom car” of the opposition in Portugal.
At the opening session of an initiative organized by the PS dedicated to migration, João Torres considered that, in this matter, the right has responded “with prejudice” when socialists defend “solidarity”.
“The democratic right has a moral duty not to allow itself to be contaminated by the dangerous discourse of indifference. It is time – and it is too late – that, in the name of democratic parchments and the historic role of the co-founding party of our constitutional regime, the leader of the PSD, Dr. Luís Montenegro, enlighten the Portuguese once and for all and say how far he is willing to go in the relationship with the extreme right”, he challenged.
For João Torres, “one cannot trust anyone who on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays defends the same as the most reactionary force in the Portuguese political spectrum and then, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, is indignant at being confronted with the regrettable drift ideology in which I wanted to dive”.
“In view of his latest statements — in which, in practice, he defends the same as Chega — it is necessary to remind the PSD leader of an old and wise precept of our people: “who does not want to be a wolf, does not wear its skin “”, he pointed out, and adding that with the PS “there is no lack of clarity or hesitation” in terms of migrations.
“We are in favor of an inclusive society capable of treating immigrants the way we want any Portuguese person who chooses to emigrate to be treated in their host country”, he said, rejecting what he called a “right-wing utilitarian magnifying glass”.
The deputy general secretary of the PS considered that, the PSD, “with this permanent attitude of conflict, a brutal dose of unpreparedness — which is plain to see — and an inability to make a serious and credible proposal, is condemning itself himself to be the broom car of the opposition parties” in Portugal.
“I am sorry and we are certainly sorry for everyone, Portugal deserved an opposition leadership very different from what it has today in our country,” he said.
João Torres also criticized the way in which the PSD reacted to the measures announced by the Government this week in the area of housing.
“The reaction of right-wing parties to the ambitious set of measures that the Government has presented, and which will now be in a public discussion process, which we want to be open and participated in, is the clearest demonstration that we have had to date of the divorce between these same parties. and the concrete problems that people face”, he considered.
For João Torres, this is a sector in which “the right and, in particular, the PSD is in tow and has nothing new to propose or add”, saying that, “for the right, it seems that everything should remain the same” .
On Friday, the PSD president said he felt “great frustration” with the Government’s measures to respond to the housing crisis, which he considered to reveal “a prime minister in his face as a survivor and a communist”.
Luís Montenegro said that the package “was presented after seven years of complete inaction by the Government and Doctor António Costa in the field of housing” and stressed that the measures fall “far short of those that were the principles and ideas that the PSD presented two days before the Government”, referring to the document released by the Social Democrats on Tuesday with proposals for the sector.