The Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Duarte Cordeiro, reacted to the announcement of the vote against the majority of the State Budget for 2021 (OE2021) by the Left Bloc, classifying the decision as “incomprehensible” and considering that the decision is “from whom it comes of the negotiation process ”.
Although the Government has already guaranteed the approval of the document in general, with the abstaining of the PCP, PAN and two non-registered deputies Joacine Katar Moreira and Cristina Rodrigues, the announcement of the Bloc last night is causing the biggest crisis in relations between the Executive, the PS and the blockers since 2015.
“The position of the Left Bloc belongs to those who come out of the negotiation process, those who leave. We have no more information than the communication that the Left Block yesterday made. It is a position of those who have moved away from the process, of those who have decided not to continue in the negotiation process, unlike other parties that have taken positions to continue the dialogue in the specialty process ”, stated Duarte Cordeiro, in a press conference, at the official residence of prime minister in Lisbon this Monday.
For one of the main responsible for the negotiations in the last months with the parties on the left and PAN, the party coordinated by Catarina Martins “moved away from the process, decided to vote against and decided to put himself on the side of those who do not want this Budget made possible ”.
“The Government considers it incomprehensible that when the country needs it most, it cannot count on the Left Bloc to make a State Budget feasible that combats a very serious pandemic, that protects people, that supports the economy and employment”, stressed the government official, before to consider it as “incomprehensible” that a document with what it says are left-wing responses to one of the biggest crises that hit the country is not made possible by the Left Bloc. “It is incomprehensible that at a critical moment for Portugal and for the Portuguese, according to the BE leader ‘the biggest crisis of our lives’, and the BE decides to stop being part of the solution that since 2015 has contributed to recover the country’s confidence, increase income and improve the economy ”, he stressed.
Duarte Cordeiro listed the concessions he presented to the blockers in the course of the negotiations, namely the reinforcement of investment in health, the broadening of the scope of the new social support, namely making it possible to cover, without applying the condition of resources, independent workers whose activity is prohibited by determination of the Government or of health, as well as the OE2021 does not contemplate any loan from the State to Novo Banco, as well as the parliamentary group of the PS having already agreed to a new audit to the institution led by António Ramalho, or even the negotiation process on the labor reforms.
The OE2021 proposal “is not just a document made by the Government”, he stressed, before stressing that “it is a Budget prepared by the contributions that the left-wing parliamentary and environmental parties have been giving us in the various meetings that we have been maintaining since July. It is a document that will certainly be improved in the discussion in the specialty with the contribution of everyone ”.
“The Portuguese now need parties that can get compromises, even if that does not mean exactly what each party stands for,” he said, considering that the Executive has complied with the essentials requested by the blockers.
Catarina Martins announced this Sunday night, after the meeting of the National Table of the Left Bloc, that the party would vote against OE2021. The blockers justified the vote in particular with what they consider to be the lack of response that the Government proposes for national health services. “It is either in 2021 that we save the NHS, or we accept that the disease will consume it”, said the leader, who defends that the proposal “fails in the most important issue of our time: it does not give Portugal the guarantee that we will have the technicians and sufficient conditions for hospitals to protect us ”.
Even so, Catarina Martins did not reject the revision of the vote, if the negotiations in the specialty produce results favorable to the party’s claims. “The Left Bloc did not end any negotiation process, but, of course, there is a moment when management is called upon to make a point of negotiation and decide the vote on the State Budget”, explains Catarina Martins, who speaks of a rejection of the document “as it was presented”.
This Monday morning, the deputy not registered Cristina Rodrigues announced that it will abstain from voting in the generality of the OE2021 proposal, which mathematically guarantees the viability of the document. In addition to the favorable vote of the 108 deputies of the PS, the PCP and the PAN announced that they will abstain, the non-registered Joacine Katar Moreira says that she is undecided between approval and abstention, and the ENP should also announce that it will abstain.
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