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António Costa began the interview by answering questions about the approval of the State Budgets for 2021, that is, about the position of the Left Bloc.
“The country needs a good budget and what we are presenting has three very clear priorities: fighting the pandemic, being able to support economic recovery and employment, and protecting people,” he said. “It is important to have a good budget for 2021,” he guaranteed.
The prime minister also said that the government has been talking to the parties “since July to prepare this budget.”
“We have made a path, I think, of approach. And I think that all the people who have appreciated this proposal undoubtedly recognize that, first, there is no setback given the progress made since 2015; and, second, that there is a clear break with any authoritarian response to the crisis. And, on the contrary, it has a proposal for social recovery, concern for the income of families and the protection of very strong jobs “, he stressed.
“I find it difficult to understand how there will be a global opposition from the left to this Budget,” said the Prime Minister, following the opinion of the Left Bloc on OE2021. “The negotiations are obviously not closed and I think it is legitimate for one of the parties to try to make improvements in relation to what is proposed. Now, fundamental disagreements, in all honesty, I would not understand. I believe, in fact, the country would not understand. “said António Costa.
Regarding the statements of Catarina Martins, who said that OE2021, as it is, could not be approved, the Prime Minister said that it was “difficult to understand why”. “It is a set of proposals that we have been making that correspond to many of the statements that had been made.”
“The proposal we made was that there be an agreement that would cover not only this Budget, but also the next ones. We wanted an agreement with a legislative horizon,” he said, recalling that “neither party showed the will to negotiate the recovery program. The debate it was carried out taking into account the strategic vision presented by Costa e Silva, we listened to parties and partners, but no one wanted to negotiate ”.
“It is essential that the Budget is approved. This legislature has a logic. The interpretation that I have made since the night of the electoral results is very clear. What did the Portuguese say they wanted? They wanted the so-called contraption to continue, now with a PS plus”. This is what the Portuguese said very clearly on election night, ”he said.
António Costa also said that, at this moment, he wants “the Budget to have the vote of the PS, the Left Bloc, the PCP, the PEV, the PAN.” “The meaning of the negotiations and the partners are what our partners have been since 2015,” he recalled.
“The talks so far have gone well. As for the essentials, I do not see where there could be differences,” said the prime minister.
“We must have a Budget that gives a priority response to the pandemic. Strengthen investment capacity in the NHS, pay a risk subsidy to health professionals who are on the front line of combat against covid-19, ensure vaccination. Regarding income, we must continue to improve pensions, introduce some fiscal investment in the household income base, that is, with the reduction of VAT on electricity, with the mechanism that we have to refund VAT “, he recalled .
António Costa continued to trust the approval of OE2021. “The PS alone has 22 more deputies than the entire right combined. The budget will only fail if the PCP and the Left Bloc add their votes to those on the right,” he said. “The fundamental question, from the political point of view, that is posed to the PCP and BE is always the following: if they want to join the right to fail this Budget or if they do not want to join the right. From the concrete point of view: nobody asks for a blank check, “he said.
When asked if he intends to resign if he is forced to rule for twelfths, the prime minister replied: “If there is one thing I will never contribute to, it is never a political crisis in the context of this pandemic crisis, this economic crisis. and this social crisis “.
“I do not turn my face to the country nor do I turn my face to the people. I am very aware of what the country is suffering at this time,” he replied, saying that his objective and to approve in the Assembly of the Republic “to approve a good Budget”. and not rule the
“I do not turn my back on the country at this time of crisis and I will do everything possible to save the country from any type of crisis,” he reacted, at the insistence of journalists to know if he would resign if the budget failed in parliament.
The pandemic and a new “unthinkable” closure
According to António Costa, INSA confirms “the seriousness of the situation”, with respect to the covid-19 pandemic in Portugal. “As has been the case in all European countries, we are still in a bullish phase that will surely continue to grow in the coming weeks”, without “concrete forecast” when the peak is reached.
“There is one thing that is certain: the situation is serious. It is a situation in which we no longer have what was the great weapon to contain the exponential growth of the pandemic in March, which is the general confinement. Today it is unthinkable that we can resort to a general confinement. It all depends on the individual behaviors we have, ”he said.
“We were repeating the warnings and there was a moment when we realized that we had to lift the warnings and that is why we went from a state of contingency to calamity. We adopt a set of measures aimed at reaching specific problems ”, he guaranteed, noting that most of the cases originated in outbreaks of family contagion, which led to the need to limit events such as weddings to a total of 50 people.
“We know that many of the outbreaks have occurred at academic events, ERASMUS student parties and other academic parties, so we decided to ban these types of events,” he said. “We must adopt measures that are highly effective in stopping the pandemic and that disrupt life in society as little as possible.”
António Costa also recalled that the virus is unknown, which can sometimes lead to a delay in action, although “much more is already known about the virus than was known last March. It is very difficult to design measures taking into account account la There is a great degree of uncertainty. All governments have tried to react. Look what is happening in Europe: some countries have decreed a curfew at night, others are adopting more or less generalized lockdowns “.
“I cannot exclude any measure, but I must try to tell the Portuguese the following: the cost of these measures is immense. The social cost. When we closed the schools it was fundamental, but nobody has any doubt about the cost that this had for the process. When we ban home visits for months, we know the emotional cost that this had for older people as a whole, ”emphasized the Prime Minister.
António Costa also recalled the measures taken for Easter, which prevented movement between municipalities to avoid contact between families. “What I want is what we all want. Most of the families, who live in Lisbon or Porto, have families spread all over the country. Such a measure [pelo Natal] it would be brutal, “he said.” People have to organize differently to celebrate Christmas. Now depriving people of displacement would be a terrible thing. “
“The confinement measure generated almost 100,000 unemployed. We must bear in mind that these measures have a brutal social cost for the people ”, he reinforced.
On the return to the state of emergency, the prime minister stressed that “it is not a scenario that is currently on the table”, but that “everything depends on a set of factors.”
“We are going to have a greater number of new cases than in the same phase of the pandemic in April, but luckily with much fewer hospitalized than we had at that time”, which is justified by the change in the “age group “to which the pandemic reaches at this time. Costa recalled.
At this stage of the interview, without being questioned about his institutional relations with the President of the Republic, António Costa even took the opportunity to globally praise the action of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“If there is something that has gone very well in the last five years, it is the excellent articulation between the Government and the President of the Republic, both with the current and the previous one,” he added.
António Costa also defended that, currently, the National Health Service “is better prepared than it was at the beginning of this crisis” pandemic.
“We have an occupancy rate for intensive care beds for covid-19 of 66%. Fortunately, we are far from having SNS under pressure,” he said.
The Prime Minister also reported that today he asked the parliament to “disagree” with Friday’s assessment of the diploma that contained the mandatory use of the “Stayaway Covid” application, leaving only the “consensual” proposal of the PSD on the imposition of the wearing the mask.
António Costa said that today he asked the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Ferro Rodrigues, to withdraw the programming of the Government diploma, whose evaluation was scheduled for Friday, which “determines the mandatory use of a mask for access or permanence in public spaces and roads “, as well as” the mandatory use of the computer application “.
“However, the PSD presented a diploma only on the mandatory use of masks in public spaces. Therefore, if this subject of masks is consensual, then let us now legislate on masks,” justified the executive leader.
According to António Costa, of the two proposals made by the Government to reinforce precautionary measures against covid-19, it was found that there was one that was reasonably agreed – curiously for you – on the mandatory use of the mask on public roads, and another in which there were many doubts and criticisms.
Regarding the request, it is useful for the Assembly of the Republic to hold all the hearings that the PS has proposed to reflect on this issue. I think that nothing better than a great debate and decision about it. But the Government would not be responsible if, given the evolution that we are experiencing from the pandemic, we do not raise with the Assembly of the Republic this issue of the computer application “stayawaycovid”, claimed the prime minister.
