“Disappointment and a huge breach of political trust”: André Ventura wants the Government to justify itself in the Budget and Finance Committee

In response to the request for an urgent debate in Parliament put forward by the PS, André Ventura, leader of Chega, decided to “call on the first day”, the Finance portfolio of the AD Government to be justified during a Budget and Finance Committee , with Miranda Sarmento and the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, Cláudia Reis Duarte. The party representative argues that urgent debates are not used to clarify situations of this nature. “Joaquim Miranda Sarmento will have to explain what he avoided answering yesterday”, argued Ventura, speaking of a “promise made about another State Budget”

“Disillusionment and a huge breach of political trust”: this is how André Ventura interpreted the “mistake” that Manuel Castro Almeida, Deputy Minister of Territorial Cohesion, spoke about in “Expresso da Meia-Noite”, recognizing the disagreement between the 1500 million euros of tax relief announced and the cut of around 200 million in the IRS, which will actually be the responsibility of the Social Democratic Government and which were not already foreseen by the Socialist budget. The president of Chega guarantees that the party’s scrutiny of the PSD’s proposals will be more intense from now on, starting with the analysis of the Stability Program and the Budget, whether with or without amendments. “Trust has to be gained day by day, document by document,” he declared. “The Government has shown that it does not deserve this trust.”

From André Ventura’s perspective, the right presented itself to these elections with a promise to alleviate the tax burden, and “the overwhelming victory that both Chega and PSD achieved in these elections” may, after all, not be used to fulfill that promise. The “non-socialist electorate” and “all those who outside socialism” expected a fiscal shock were faced with a reduction in the PSD’s IRS that does not exceed “except at one point or another” that of António Costa. It is not an addition, it is the implementation of Costa’s approach, stressed the deputy, highlighting that expectations that “we would have a budget friendly to those who work” were disappointed.

Also increasing the pressure placed on Luís Montenegro to present an amending budget, Ventura considered that the OE already approved during the socialist absolute majority is a “bad budget for companies, families and the country”.

“We risk having exactly the same result as we had with the Socialist Party,” said Ventura. The leader of Chega pointed the finger at Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, Minister of Finance, for having shown “little skill and little tact”, but it was to the Prime Minister that Ventura dedicated his harshest words: “Mr Prime Minister, don’t let us make him regret the vote of confidence he received in Parliament yesterday. What happened is serious, and shows how parties that form majorities can break them.”

For Chega, it became clear, explained André Ventura: “There can be no blank checks or checks without coverage. Chega will monitor all proposals and documents presented in the Assembly of the Republic.”