The new leader of the PSD highlighted the meeting with the PSD caucus during the 100 days of government. Leaving the meeting, he said that this time “seems like 100 years”, since “nothing has changed with the absolute majority”. Luís Montenegro says that “disorder” reigns within the Government and that the episode between António Costa and Pedro Nuno Santos was such a “discussion between the political nucleus of the Government” that it cannot be forgotten. He also reiterates that the PSD will not abandon the fortnightly debates.
In the same statements, Luís Montenegro confirms, as the Observer reported on Wednesday, that he will demand that António Costa go ahead with the Strategic Environmental Assessment about the New Airport. Although he does not want to publicly defend one of the three possible options given the conclusions of this study, the Observer knows that the Montenegrin leadership currently prefers the Portela+Montijo solution (Vice President Miguel Pinto Luz and future parliamentary leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento even publicly admitted his preference for this solution, after the permanent commission in which the matter was discussed).
To transfer all this to the Government, he reveals, Montenegro is “reconciling” the meeting with the prime minister, which he believes will take place soon.
Montenegro already has a position at the airport to take Costa: it demands studies negotiated with Rio and prefers a Passos solution
Returning to the 100 days of government, Montenegro says that this is a government of “continuity” that “is not capable of structurally changing the country or sustaining the path of impoverishment of the country in which we are immersed.”
After this Thursday the PS presented a proposal for the debates with the President of the Government to be monthly and the PSD proposed on Wednesday that they be fortnightly, Montengro says that he does not give up that the periodicity be every fifteen days. “There is a majority government that must be scrutinized. There are already indications of the use and abuse of the majority and that is why it is necessary to guarantee more control instruments and one of them is the fortnightly”, says the leader of the PSD.
For the debates, Montenegro asks that they not be a “show off” or “theater” and admits negotiating with the PS, asking for a “sensible position”. But he cautions: “The one point we won’t compromise on is the fortnightly nature of the discussions.”
Source: Observadora
