For PSD, the interview of the President of the Republic to PÚBLICO and RTP was “very realistic”. The party’s vice-president, Paulo Rangel, praised Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s critical stance towards the Government of António Costa and devalued the “barbs” that the head of state threw at the opposition.
“The President of the Republic had a very realistic interview in which he showed that we are facing, as he himself said, a reheated and tired majority, which after a year is exhausted”, Rangel told journalists in Madeira, where he attended a dinner of the interparliamentary meeting that brings together MEPs and regional MPs.
Rangel evoked Marcelo’s warnings about housing, education, health and the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, riding the expression used by the President of the Republic to define the absolute majority of António Costa: “a warmed-up and tired majority”. The MEP made a point of highlighting the issue of TAP, whose “consequences are not all over yet”, but which, for now, result in a “political weakening” of the finance minister.
On the other hand, Rangel downplayed the President of the Republic’s criticism of the lack of alternatives. “As for the PSD alternative, we don’t have to worry. The PSD is building it and affirming it every day”, he stressed, trying to explain what Marcelo had said. “It’s not a cause for concern.”
The dinner at the interparliamentary meeting was interrupted for the PSD’s reaction to the President of the Republic’s interview, but before that the PSD national leader’s speech had already taken place. Luís Montenegro, over the course of 24 minutes, praised Madeira’s governance, criticized the housing package and associated the PS with the extreme left.
In housing, for example, if the announced measures are implemented, the government of António Costa can be defined as “the most communist in Portugal since the April revolution”. An argument that served to mark the difference between the extremes: “We are not the party that agrees to cross the red lines and go hand in hand with the anti-Europe, anti-Euro and anti-NATO parties”.
Montenegro’s speech had already, however, taken the support of the President of the Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque. “We strongly disagree with two measures taken by the central government in an arrogant and arrogant way. The housing package is a flagrant violation of rights,” he said, criticizing the end of visas gold and restrictions on local accommodation.
Miguel Albuquerque also warned that he has Luís Montenegro to be the “reformist force that will take Portugal out of the path of decay”, leaving the guarantee that Madeira is with the national leader. “I count on President Luís Montenegro to help on this path [reformista]. I would like to reiterate to our president that PSD Madeira is in solidarity with you”.