In his usual space for commentary, on the SIC, Luís Marques Mendes continues to point out the measures that the Government has advanced to fight inflation —and which arrive this month in the pockets of the Portuguese— and those that appear in the State Budget to conclude that they are “insufficient”. The former leader of the PSD points specifically to the lack of measures for those who “the terrifying situation” of those who have housing credit and will be affected by the rise in interest rates, but also support for pensioners and the 125 euros monthly payments that some Portuguese already pay. He got.

“The logic of support has to be more selective: everyone should not be supported equally, but the poorest and most vulnerable should be supported more,” the commentator began by saying, revealing that “a few days ago a minister” told him “that his woman would be entitled to this help of €125/month. With all due respect, a minister’s wife is not exactly a socially vulnerable person,” Mendes said.

In addition, the commentator and State Councilor explained the increases in pensions and the tax increases that they will entail for some pensioners, giving specific examples and concluding that “a few thousand pensioners, especially with lower pensions, in addition to being penalized in the updates from 2024, will also be sanctioned at IRS.” “The division into two years of the 2023 pension is a good deal for the State, but a bad deal for thousands of pensioners,” he said in the television commentary that called for a rule in the 2023 Budgets that “guarantees fiscal neutrality ”. . This guarantees that any pensioner affected fiscally by this splitting of the the pension will be compensated in the same amount by the State”, he detailed.

As for the beneficiaries of housing credit, the commentator considers that the situation “is increasingly precarious.” “The numbers are starting to get scary,” he said, pointing to the credit simulations and the corresponding worsening of the mortgage payment, if the review were done now.

On this specific point, Mendes considers that “the Government is having two weights and two measures. He had concrete support for tenants, and well: the freezing of rents from 2% increase. As for housing credit, the support is clearly insufficient”, he said, pointing to the measures presented by the Government: the facilitation of the early repayment of loans; relaxation of withholdings at source; and the extension of loan terms. “Everything is useful, but it does not solve the essential. Nor does it represent any financial or fiscal support,” said Marques Mendes.

PSD should not criticize certain account policies

Regarding the leader of his party, Luís Montenegro, the commentator anticipates a “difficult task” and says that “the PSD must not make the mistake of criticizing the policies of certain accounts. It would be giving what was said for what was not said. It is not believable. The PSD must place its criticism on two other points: the lack of ambition of the OE in the economic field; and inequality at the social level.

Future goals should be to recover civil servants and pensioners, explained Mendes, who said that these groups “fled” from the PSD at the time of the troika.