The prime minister has stated that what distinguishes the government from the opposition is that, despite both recognising that there are problems, the executive seeks to find solutions while the other parties “talk about chaos”.

During the second round of requests for clarification during the state of the nation debate, António Costa ignored the 17 questions put to him by deputies from all parliamentary groups, answering them instead in one go.

After listening for more than 47 minutes to questions about the management of forests, airports, the National Health Service (NHS), the Decent Work Agenda or the consequences of the war in Ukraine, Costa answered in little more than a minutes to all these questions, stating that he had “very little time” to respond – despite the Government still having 10 minutes – and wanting to focus “on a fundamental answer”.

The prime minister said that what divides the government from the opposition “is not in recognising whether or not there are problems, whether or not there are problems at airports, whether or not there are problems with the SNS, whether or not there are problems with the fires”.

Costa acknowledged that “of course there are problems” and stated that, if the deputies “had paid attention” to the initial intervention he made at the start of the debate on the state of the nation, they would have noticed that he pointed out “problems in emergencies, in the forests and at airports”, and presented “the results”.

“The big difference between the Government and the opposition is that the opposition, in the face of problems, speak of chaos, and the Government, when it sees problems, finds challenges to seek solutions”, he stressed.

Asking himself if “all the problems are solved”, António Costa then replied: “Of course not”.

“There are many unresolved problems and that's what we're here for: to continue solving each problem one by one. This is what we have done, this is what we are doing, and this is what we will continue to do.”