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The Prime Minister affirmed this Wednesday that the Government continues to dialogue with representatives of the catering and nightlife sectors, highlighted the ongoing support measures and called for the end of the “impasse” with businessmen on hunger strike.
António Costa spoke with the Lusa agency and RTP at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon, moments before meeting by videoconference with the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.
Asked about the group of businessmen from the gastronomic and night scene who are on hunger strike in front of the Assembly of the Republic, demanding to be received by the Prime Minister or the Minister of State and Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, António Costa asked that ” the impasse created is overcome “and rejected the thesis that this protest results from the absence of dialogue on the part of its executive.
“This does not correspond to reality, because even on the 18th there was a meeting attended by Mr. José Gouveia”, who is one of the main representatives of the so-called night sector – “and another meeting had already been held in July”, reacted.
António Costa also objected that these sectors are not the object of support measures from his Government, saying that these the aid “amounts to 1.1 billion euros, half of which are non-reimbursable”.
With the new “Support” program, according to the Prime Minister, the Government has already received 26 thousand applications, with financial aid that reaches 750 million euros in non-refundable form.
“I heard Mr. José Gouveia say that he wants the TSU (Unique Social Rate) exemption, but the nightlife sector, which cannot function according to the law, you have the possibility to remain under the simplified dismissal regime, in which case has full TSU exemption. On the other hand, the Government is speaking and continues speaking ”, defended.
In this context, the executive leader later stated that The Minister of Economy will meet this Wednesday with the representative confederations of these sectors and the Secretaries of State for Commerce and Tourism sent an email to José Gouveia on Tuesday to express their availability for the dialogue next Thursday ”.
In other words, for António Costa, the Government’s doors are open to dialogue and he is trying to support the reality of the economy.
However, in relation to the demands made by these businessmen, the Prime Minister pointed out two “red lines”: one in terms of public health in the fight against covid-19, another in terms of conditions for the granting of support by the State.
“When they ask us to end the restrictions, we respond that we cannot endanger people’s health. And when they tell us that this support must be granted regardless of regular situations with the tax authorities and Social Security, obviously this is not acceptable”. because the solidarity effort must be from everyone to everyone ”, he stressed.
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