The Prime Minister used his experience as a resident of Espinho to defend the model of centralization of hospital emergencies, admitting that, “as is natural”, he also did not agree when the inhabitants of his municipality started having to travel to Vila Nova de Gaia.
Warning deputies that he would “take the liberty of giving a personal testimony, as a citizen and as a political agent”, Montenegro referred to the closure of the basic emergency room at Hospital de Espinho, which allowed “much better care than was being provided”, even though it was 15 kilometers away. And he concluded that “there are decisions that have to be taken, because overall they correspond to positive effects”.
Something that the Prime Minister said he is convinced will also happen with the centralization of obstetrics and gynecology emergencies in Greater Lisbon and the Setúbal Peninsula, assuming good means of transport and emergency services. “I will be here to assume my responsibilities. If it works, I hope everyone can assume that it has resulted in an improvement”, he said, integrating the decision with the desire to “transform and look to the future” with which he ended the fortnightly debate.
Before that, reacting to the intervention of the PSD parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, Luís Montenegro recalled what the opposition said, after the 2024 legislative elections, when his government announced the fall of the IRSthe increase in solidarity supplementation for the elderly and agreements to enhance Public Administration careers.
“They said the deficit was coming. It didn’t come”, the prime minister began by saying, immediately hearing references from some deputies to the famous warning made by Passos Coelho at the beginning of “Geringonça”. “They didn’t say that the devil was coming, but they were close. Maybe they didn’t say it, but they wanted it”, continued Montenegroadding that, with the fall in the tax burden on families and businesses, while creating support for young people and increasing all pensions, the opposition felt that “that’s where the deficit comes from.”
The Prime Minister defended his government’s economic model, saying that “it is based on a more balanced tax payment, to stimulate the economy’s competitiveness and productivity”, saying that “this path will continue”. Despite the fact that its strategy was “suffering external shocks that were unforeseen situations”, such as the storm train and the conflict in the Middle East.
“The pessimism, skepticism and negativity of the opposition was already predictable”, countered Luís Montenegro, repeating that “poverty can only be fought with the creation of wealth and not with welfare”. And, given the need to increase available resources, he said that “labor legislation is the cornerstone of our competitiveness”.
Clearly addressing voters more than the deputies he had sitting in front, the prime minister asked a train of rhetorical questions. “Have we already exhausted our growth potential? Are we or are we not capable of increasing the minimum wage and the average wage? To put the average wage further away from the minimum wage? I answer: yes, we are capable. Portugal is capable, Portuguese workers are capable, Portuguese companies are capable.”
For Luís Montenegro, “this should also motivate the opposition”. However, he diagnosed them with “a lot of negativity and an inability to distinguish the Government’s scrutiny from the country’s success”. This is because, in his opinion, “one thing is to point out the Government’s errors and omissions and another is to contribute to the success of the country, which is the success of the women and men who work in Portugal”.
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