“If the European Union used that criterion [número de casos novos por cem mil habitantes], and only this one, to open the external borders, is it able to tell me which would be the first country to which it would open its borders? “. The irony is of the Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva; the answer, promptly given by himself in an interview with TSF, is “North Korea, which does not report any cases”.
The fact that Portugal is on a kind of ‘black list’ of some countries, which consider that the country is registering too many new cases in recent weeks and therefore refuse to receive anyone who lands in Portugal, has been criticized by the Government. Santos Silva defends in this interview the thesis that the Executive has resorted to in the last days: Portugal will be harmed by being, on the one hand, being honest – North Korea continues to insist that it does not register any case, despite international skepticism – and, on the other hand, carrying out many tests – a fact that has already been contested, at least in part, by specialists, who reveal that there is even a worsening of the health situation, especially in Lisbon.
To the TSF, Santos Silva defends that the criterion of number of cases per 100 thousand inhabitants must be followed by others, at the head of the “number of tests” carried out. “It takes prudence and sage to avoid falling into ridicule”, stresses the minister, remembering that “if we do not test, the cases that exist will not be known”.
In the same interview, the government official also defends that in Europe there must be an understanding of “common criteria” to be adopted to fix the national minimum wage and assumes the concern with the “blow” that the Portuguese economy, as well as the world economy, suffered, particularly in the scope of exports. The Government’s hope, he reveals, is now that this crisis, even if it does not take the form of a “V” – a rapid fall followed by an equally rapid recovery – adopt the “U” model – a crisis whose worst phase lasts for some time, but that is corrected later in order to return to the starting point.
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