“We have to guarantee the approval of next year’s State Budget, the national interest demands it, the national context imposes it, the sense of State determines it. The Portuguese will not understand a different scenario”, stated Luís Montenegro.

The Prime Minister once again classified as irrefutable the proposal that he will present to the leader of the PS and assured that the Government “never wanted and does not want early elections”.

“If they happen, the Portuguese people will easily understand who may have hidden behind convictions and victimisation in order to provoke elections,” he warned.

He added: “On the part of the Government, we will remain calm. The times we live in demand lucidity, common sense, good faith and loyalty. Loyalty between the parties, but above all loyalty between politics and the people, between politics and the Portuguese people.”

The subject of the State Budget only came up at the end of Luís Montenegro’s speech, which focused on the assessment of the six months of the PSD/CDS-PP Government and the recent fires, a week before the document was delivered to the Assembly of the Republic.

“As talks are currently underway with the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic, I will not dwell on it,” he said.

The Prime Minister argued that “each one must live up to their responsibilities,” considering that this was possible in the recent tripartite agreement on salary increases.

“In other words, the social partners are with the country and the Portuguese people are counting on the Government. The question will be to know how far they will go and where the opposition will go”, he stated.