Luís Montenegro considers that the appointment of Fernando Araújo, current president of the Board of Directors of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de S. João, as the new executive director of the National Health Service (SNS) is nothing more than a “cosmetic operation”.

“What is at stake is not the choice of the people. What is at stake is a model and a health policy to be able to serve the interests of the people. The creation of the new statute of the SNS and the figure of the Chief Executive Officer are a reflection of two things: the failure of the Health policy; and a desperate search to do something different to see if they give different results”, began the PSD leader, on the sidelines of a political action in Tabuaço, district of Viseu.

“With the same policy, you can recruit the most reputable CEOs, you can recruit the most politicized ministers… the results will not be different. [O que o Governo está a fazer] They are cosmetic operations. It changes ministers, but the policy remains the same; create an SNS statute, but the policy remains the same; a new director general of the SNS is appointed, but the policy remains the same,” continued Montenegro.

“What the Portuguese don’t need are aesthetic operations; what the Portuguese want are structural reforms. And the prime minister is reluctant to reform.”

For Montenegro, Fernando Araújo will be no more than a “kind of Minister number two of Health” and that, in essence, nothing truly substantial will change in the SNS. “The prime minister has already stated that the policy is to remain the same. What Portugal needs is not the same policy. The answer cannot be to change the protagonists, that is very insufficient”, lamented the Social Democratic president.

PSD will present proposals to combat housing interest

On another front, the PSD leader guaranteed that the party will soon present proposals to contain the increase in interest rates on housing loans. Even without a closed proposal, Montenegro admitted that it can go through moratoriums, deduction of the amount of interest in the amount of the IRS up to the tax benefits associated with home loans. “The State has this obligation”, defended the Social Democrat.

As for the challenge left by André Ventura, who tried to get Luís Montenegro into the debate on the revision of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the president of the PSD dismissed the issue without ever mentioning the name of the right-wing opponent.

“I am focused on opposing the PS and I am focused on making the PSD an alternative party to the PS. I will never deviate from that focus,” he concluded.