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“The pandemic has not ended and will not end until we have treatment and a vaccine. No one knows when it will be. We cannot lower our guard and control the pandemic must continue to be the first priority for everyone,” António Costa stressed this Monday at the inauguration. of the PS National Conference, in the auditorium of the Convent of São Francisco, in Coimbra.
The general secretary of the Socialist Party emphasized the need for political parties to continue working, as long as the rules and regulations of the DGS are met, without the “pandemic getting out of control.”
“We are here at this national conference to show that nothing forces the parties to stop their activity, as long as we all comply with the safety regulations,” he said.
However, he realized that it is necessary to continue strengthening the fight against covid-19 and that in that sense “two very important steps will be taken.” The first of these measures, according to the socialist leader, is “an extraordinary increase in the number of tests to be carried out” and he explained why: “When the return of the holidays returns to concentrate people, when the companies are fully operational again and when if the educational system works again, the risk of contagion will naturally increase. “
After underlining that “this generation of children and young people” cannot be harmed and underlining the importance of starting classes, the prime minister stressed the importance of public schools and face-to-face education to “combat inequalities.”
Teaching in public schools and in the classroom is essential
“Schools cannot close them all, nor can we have the level of distance education that we had last year. We know it well and it was clear: public school and classroom teaching are fundamental conditions to combat inequalities,” he said.
“There is always a student or teacher who is going to be infected. And we have to know very clearly what happened to that class or those students. We have to prevent an infected person [signifique] so that the whole school finishes ”, he added.
In other words, testing is essential, hence increasing testing capacity is one of the fundamental measures in the fight against prevention, a theme that served as António Costa’s motto to appeal to the use of the StayAway Covid application.
“Download [a aplicação] on their mobile phones so that each one stands in solidarity to notify all those with whom they have been in contact and who may have been infected. It is a civic duty of all and a civic duty of which I will be the first to set an example ”, he said.
The prime minister also says that it is vital to recover the economy and the need to get the country out of recession. “We have to go further and overcome the crisis. We handled it five years ago, we will recover it,” he explains.
The secretary general of the PS stressed the need to hire more staff for the SNS, as well as to increase the number of beds in intensive care (“although we did not see in the first wave that dramatic situation that we saw in other countries”), so Portugal will reach the European average in 2021.
Portugal has never exceeded the rate of intensive care beds by 63%. But, knowing that we must wish for the best and that we must prepare for the worst, we must invest to reach the end of this year with an average of nursing beds. intensive care units already very close to the European average. And, in 2021, we should reach the European average in intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants, “he said.
“The virus came to reveal inequalities that were already known”
The executive leader stressed that it is “essential” to have answers to the social inequalities that the virus has exposed in Portugal. To do this, he realized the need to answer 4 points:
- Strengthen the National Health Service;
- Strengthen housing needs. Both social housing and affordable rent. It is a measure that “today” interests not only the young people living in Lisbon and Porto, but is now being extended to the big cities;
- New social responses such as “the covid posed a health problem” and revealed many “of the problems that already existed”. “Despite the efforts of the IPSS, Misericórdias, Mutualidades, we know that there are indeed many vulnerabilities”, in a country with Portuguese “demographics” it is necessary to “invest in new social responses” for the elderly population, that is, to increase home support measures “;
- A “large investment” in the computerization of public administration, to further develop Simplex, “endless work.” In other words, to combat bureaucracy and reduce “context costs”.
The head of government has also stressed that he wants “vigorous agriculture” and that it is necessary to invest in vocational training and adult training so that “no one is left behind.”
The interior, water and forest register
António Costa stressed that the money from the European Union will not be used for important works. (“Portugal already has many good roads”).
In other words, the funds will be channeled to “small important works” of connection and not to the “big infrastructures” of connections from Lisbon to Porto, “these have their own financing channels”.
Enumerating various connection elements of the interior, he stressed that the mission is to ensure that “the interior ceases to be the interior” to become the “axis of articulation of this Iberian road”, which Portugal must build on the Peninsula.
Referring to the fires of 2017, António Costa stressed that the forest registry is moving forward and that “it will be done”, “it hurts who hurts.” This is because there is an obligation for future generations and, just as important, there are “funds” to enforce the law.
The executive leader reported on an investment in Alto Alentejo, anticipating that the construction of the Pisão dam is planned, so that the infrastructure does for the region the same as Alqueva did for the rest of Alentejo.
Costa realized that the country needs to invest in its productive potential to better respond to crises and that Portugal’s lack of cohesion penalizes the territory (“the interior is no less developed than the interior by chance”), a vulnerability that has to be filled.
The answer to the crisis is a marathon
The socialist leader considered essential the existence of a political and social “consensus”, because “the country does not have a race of one hundred meters ahead.”
“Many believed that covid-19 would disappear if we were in a state of emergency for 15 days and locked ourselves at home, but we have already realized that this is not the case. This is a marathon from a health point of view. But it is also a marathon from an economic and social point of view ”, warned the Prime Minister.
At this point, António Costa stressed that it cannot be said at the same time that Portugal is facing “the greatest economic crisis in history and hope that this crisis will disappear tomorrow by a miracle, if the covid-19 disappears.”
“No, the covid-19 will leave marks, because there were companies that were destroyed, there are companies that will not reopen and there is capital that has been lost. The recovery from this crisis is a deep and very demanding job,” emphasized the Secretary General . of the PS.
Will Portugal have “internal discipline” in the use of European funds in the coming years?
Costa argued that the country should maximize the use of grants and limit the use of loans as much as possible.
“We have to maximize the use of donations and limit indebtedness as much as necessary, because we must not forget that we are still one of the countries with the highest debt. After the covid-19 and the recovery, there is a tomorrow. We cannot be creating today for future generations responsibilities that future generations should not inherit ”, stated the Prime Minister in his speech.
According to António Costa, the use of European funds requires the use of “maximum subsidies and minimum loans”.
“That was the battle we fought in Europe, but it is also the internal discipline that we have to introduce in the execution of our program,” stressed the socialist leader.
At this point, António Costa said that the final version of António Costa e Silva’s Economic Recovery Plan until 2030 will be presented on September 15.
“A strategic vision is essential to anchor a vast period of intervention. For this reason, it is essential to have an instrument that ensures coherence throughout the years given the options that are made today and that will inevitably be implemented in several years ”, he justified.
In this context, the socialist leader also considered essential the existence of coherence in terms of the articulation between the economic and social emergency plan already underway and the options of Portugal 2030.
Thus, according to António Costa, it is essential to ensure that the recovery and resilience program, “which is extraordinary and has a much more limited execution period, until February 2026, is well articulated with the Multiannual Financial Framework that will be developed throughout ten years. ” years to 2030 “.
We have to choose well what we put in one and what we put in the other. We must put in the one that has a short term of execution what we are sure we can do in the short term. We must put in the one with the longest term what we know we will not be able to execute more quickly ”, he added.
* With agencies
