MADRID 18 Oct. () –
The fragile parliamentary balance in Portugal has passed its first test after weeks of uncertainty over the decision that the Socialist Party (PS) would take regarding the budgets presented by the conservative Government of Luís Montengro, after the opposition finally announced that it would abstain.
After ten minutes listing the reasons for voting against, the general secretary of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, announced on Thursday night that he would propose to his party to abstain in order to avoid the third legislative elections in less than three years.
Santos explained that they will abstain in the two budget votes, but has left the door open for the bench to act with “freedom” in the detailed discussions of the document, always without exceeding the agreed surplus of 0.3 percent. “The PS will not cause imbalances in public accounts,” he said.
In that sense, Santos pointed out that the Government of Montenegro is increasingly “alone, isolated” and is “much more of a minority and absolutely dependent” on the socialists, to whom it will not be able to turn again.
For its part, Montenegro thanked the Socialist Secretary General for the “heartfelt responsibility” of the Socialist General Secretary from the EU Leaders’ Summit in Brussels and stressed that national interest prevailed. In turn, he expressed confidence that there would be no problem when the document is debated in his specialty.
The rest of the parties represented in the National Assembly highlighted the “political defeat” that making these budgets viable with his abstention has meant for Santos. For the extreme right, the decision shows that they are the first force in the opposition and not the socialists.
For their part, the parties to the left of the PS have criticized the “enormous incoherence” of the socialists, as well as the union with the conservatives for the benefit of the economic powers.
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