Montenegro accuses PS of irresponsibility in immigration

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said this Saturday that the Government wants “more security on the streets” and more “authority for the police”, after having accused the socialist executives of irresponsibility with immigration.

“We have changed the immigration rules, we want more security on the streets, more authority for the police, a justice system that works. For us, the rule of law, respect for rights and the law, is the first value of democracy. If we lose the basis of the rule of law, we lose the respect of the people,” said the Prime Minister and leader of the PSD.

Luís Montenegro was speaking in Madrid, at the congress of the Spanish People's Party (PP), which runs until Sunday, and was one of the two international guests at the meeting, with the president of the European People's Party (EPP), Manfred Weber.

The PSD leader, who spoke in Spanish, said that the years of socialist governments in Portugal “stalled the country and its development” and “had an irresponsible migration policy, without regulation and without control”.

Montenegro also accused the PS governments of having become radicalized, fomenting “fracture and division”, of having worsened public health and education services, of not having a housing policy, of having “systematically increased” taxes and of having joined forces with the far left and the far right “in the corridors of politics” to overthrow the previous executive, which he led.

“But the people joined forces in the streets to legitimize us and approved the motion that matters most, the trust of the people,” he said.

“Today we are reforming Portugal and we are not in government to maintain power at any cost”, he assured.

He added that he only wanted to govern with a victory in the elections and that, when his suitability and that of his family were questioned, he presented a motion of confidence in parliament, in apparent references to current Spanish politics, although without specifically mentioning the situation of the executive of the socialist Pedro Sánchez, which is going through a crisis due to suspicions of corruption and depends in parliament on a geringo of eight parties.

Montenegro stated that, like the Spanish PP, the PSD in Portugal “is the people’s party”, the “true defender of the welfare state”, which wants “good accounts” in public finances and has growth objectives for the economy, which has already lowered taxes twice and will do so once more and has just changed immigration rules.

Expressing his certainty that the PP will lead the next Government in Spain, Montenegro considered that this scenario would be the best for Spain and the Iberian Peninsula.

The PP re-elected Alberto Núñez Feijó as party president this Saturday, at a congress in which he is the only candidate for the position and his leadership was not criticized.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo called this congress, which is extraordinary, with the argument that it is necessary to prepare the party for the end of 'Sanchism', which he considers to be already “in the countdown”:

Elected leader of the PP for the first time in 2022, Feijóo won the last national legislative elections, in July 2023, but did not become prime minister because he was unable to gather an absolute majority in parliament to approve his election to the post.

Since he has been at the head of the PP, the party has also won the autonomous and municipal elections of May 2023, the European elections of 2024 and the regional elections in Galicia last year.

In addition to being the largest party in Spain's parliament, the PP heads the autonomous governments of 13 of the country's 19 autonomous regions and cities.