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The “most important” test for the Government in the short term is the return of face-to-face classes, António Costa said this morning.
Speaking at the PS Recover Portugal conference in Coimbra, which constitutes the Back to school Socialists-, the socialist leader said that “we cannot have the level” of distance education that was carried out last year, so all school groups will have to prepare contingency plans in case of outbreaks in schools.
“We have to prevent an infected person from closing the entire school”, Costa said, stressing, however, that “distance education via TV will continue,” for situations in which there is no alternative but to send students home.
“I ask you to download [a aplicação StayAway Covid] on their cell phones. It is a civic duty for all of us and I will be the first to lead by example. “
On the subject of the speech on “controlling the pandemic”, the head of the PS stressed that “we cannot lower our guard”, because “the pandemic will not end until we have a treatment and a vaccine”, and nobody knows when it will be. ” It is also true that with the return of many Portuguese from vacation and the resumption of the school year, “the risk of contagion will increase“.
In the blink of an eye, the PCP legitimized the Festa do Avante !, saying that “nothing has to stop the activities of the parties, as long as they comply with safety standards“And immediately afterwards he appealed to the Portuguese to use the StayAway Covid app.
“I ask you to download it on your mobile phones. It is a civic duty for everyone and I will be the first to lead by example,” he said.
In his speech, Costa focused mainly on explaining the priorities of the Government and the PS for the recovery of Portugal, with a Powerpoint designed at the same time on giant screens.
He announced, for example, that the so-called Costa e Silva Plan – Strategic Vision of the Portugal Economic Recovery Plan 2020-2030 – will have a final version already on September 15, with the Executive wanting to discuss it in Parliament and meet in surrounding it “a great national consensus “. On September 21, there will be consultations with all parties and the Government still wants to discuss the plan with the social partners.
“Consensus is essential, because what we have ahead of us is not a hundred-meter race. The covid has not disappeared at the end of the confinement, the covid is there and it is a marathon from the point of view of health. But it is also a marathon from the point of view. from an economic and social point of view. We cannot say that we are facing the greatest economic and social crisis in history and wait for the covid to pass for the crisis to pass: it will not pass, it will leave marks, “he said, explaining that the most optimistic outlook for the EU says that only in 2022 countries will go back to the way they were before the pandemic. “It’s three years wasted, at best”, He says.
It is, therefore, a “deep and long battle” and, therefore, it is a battle that requires “consensus”.
In implicit reference to his bet on a contraption 2, Costa said that he is “working to create the political conditions so that within the legislature there is the necessary stability.”
And, he added, “these programs [de recuperação económica] they are not from the Government, some transcend the legislature, some transcend the next legislature [2023-2027]”.
In other words: “These are programs for Portugal, everyone has to participate and we count on everyone.”
At the end of the day, it is about “taking care of the future, because the response to the crisis cannot be in the short term” and, therefore, about “building a country with more and better future, that resists better the crises and accelerate its climate transition and your digital transition. “
Speaking of the money that will come from the EU, Costa stressed that these “resources will be a historic opportunity and a great responsibility.”
Because “no Portuguese would forgive us if we did not use these funds in the best possible way”, the head of the Government promised “internal budgetary discipline” and “maximum [uso] of scholarships and minimum [uso] of loans “for the sake of the national public debt.
The speech was not very political. In addition to referring to the work he is doing to recreate a contraption 2, António Costa only spoke, shortly after opening his speech, of the three electoral events that are coming: regional elections in the Azores (October 25), presidential (January 2021) and autarkic (October 2021).
“It is from the left that we want to continue leading the political solution that Portugal needs. We naturally have the sense of responsibility of the other parties that make up the majority of the left with us.”
Here, the message he wanted to convey was a devaluation of the presidential elections, defining the regional and local elections of the Azores as “elections of the greatest importance for the PS”, in which, according to him, the PS has the objective of remaining as match. with more mayors and more co-chairs.
At the beginning of the socialist conference, outright politics remained in the hands of the PS parliamentary leader.
“It is to the left that we want to continue leading the political solution that Portugal needs. To do this, we naturally have the sense of responsibility of the other parties that make up the majority of the left that Parliament has today, always respecting differences. of each one, but always putting the interest of Portugal above any agenda or party tactic ”, said Ana Catarina Mendes, highlighting that“ the national interest is above any agenda or tactic ”and that“ time is not a unreal agenda. made of glances over the navel. “
