It is the second such warning in the space of days. The President of the Republic asked the Government this Wednesday to show the economic lines that the country will have to sew next year. Marcelo says that the Budget should already be ready, but he shows that he still does not know what will fit there, in the current context of crisis. And when he is asked about the omission of an income forecast in a Social Security report on the future of pensions, the President is clear in his warning: “I would start with say the prospects for 2023 and then, beyond, as it will be with the sustainability of Social Security”.

The urgency of the Government in explaining why it does not apply the law of automatic updating of pensions next year is, therefore, questioned by the President of the Republic, who even says that the forecasts published by the Bank of Portugal do not arrive: “ It is not the governor who makes the Budget, it was important that whoever has it in hand, before or after the governor speaks, tell the Portuguese what awaits him”. “Even if it is to say that he was not capable of making predictions,” he added, on the sidelines of a class he gave late in the morning at the Pedro Nunes institute in Lisbon.

Over the weekend, Marcelo had already warned that it was important for the Government to show the Portuguese the updated projections of the Budgets. He now presses the same notice, saying that for this he will convene the parties and the Council of State, upon returning from a visit to the United States.

The notice to the Government also helps Marcelo not to comment on specific measures, always responding with the same insistence, whether it is the application of a tax on extraordinary profits of companies, or the omission of the forecast of income in a report of Social Security on the sustainability of the system.

“The important thing at this time, and that is why I am going to meet with the parties and convene the Council of State, is that the Portuguese understand what the government’s vision is for the near future,” repeated the President of the Republic, apologizing for detail in what format António Costa should do it. But he urges the prime minister to say “how he sees the growth of GDP, the evolution of inflation, employment and public accounts.” Less than a month before the delivery of the Budgets, the president wants the Government to say “to the Portuguese that ‘these are the scenarios that exist’. And then you can see the room for maneuver for the next Budget”.

“It is already known that it is very difficult to make that forecast, but when the Budget is made, a baseline forecast is made,” says Marcelo, who even points out that there is little time left for the OE to be delivered to the Assembly of the Republic: “It is already must be ready”. And he explains how, in his opinion, this anticipation can be “good for the Government (…) or it will be more difficult for the Portuguese to understand the reason for the decisions.” And he concluded: “I think, but it may be an insufficiency of my perception.”

Another warning: “There is a window of opportunity” to reform education

There were also advisories to the Government on Education, an area of ​​focus at the start of the school year. When asked about the lack of teachers in some schools in the country, Marcelo hopes “that any adjustment that is made will be made because the start of the school year is decisive.”

That was what he had just told Pedro Nunes’s students, especially when they asked him what the main challenges were in this area. “That would take another hour of conversation”, fired the President, even before admitting that at this moment there is “a window of opportunity to rethink the system as a whole. From the physical structures and location of the different centers, to their form of organization, management, the methods used and the way of facing the digital revolution that radically changed teaching.