The deputy Secretary-General of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, considered this Saturday that any negotiations between the PSD and Chega would mean a rupture of the social democrats with their culture, accusing Rui Rio of having an attitude of “political conduct against the grain” .
Only an attitude of “political conduction against the path of social and economic innovation can justify that the PSD is today in the stage of admitting to being able to negotiate with Chega. What, if it happens, would mean a rupture of the PSD with its social-democratic culture ”, accuses José Luís Carneiro, in a note released at the end of a visit to the municipal market in Leiria and a future business incubation center.
“If Rui Rio opts for the experience of driving against the grain, he is at serious risk of collision with his social democratic constituency”, he adds.
On Thursday, the PSD's president admitted talks with Chega with a view to electoral understandings only if the party evolves "to a more moderate position", saying he dismisses that possibility if this political force "continues on a line of demagogy and populism".
“It doesn't depend on PSD, it depends on Chega. If Chega evolves in such a way that - although it is a markedly right-wing party, in many cases of the extreme right, very far from us who are at the center -, if Chega evolves to a more moderate position, I think that things can be understood, ”said Rui Rio, in an interview with RTP3.
Subsequently, in a statement, the leader of Chega, André Ventura, responded to the president of the PSD stating that he only accepts conversations with the Social Democrats if Rui Rio opposes “the serious” and ceases to be “the socialist government's bridesmaid” .
In the PS note, José Luís Carneiro also accused the PSD of having a “retrograde behavior”, which contrasts with the “entrepreneurial vision” of the socialists and the Government, considering that the social democrats have arrived “late and at bad times to meet with the winds of history ”.
In an allusion to the PSD leader’s criticisms of the Government’s strategy for hydrogen, José Luís Carneiro adds that, at a time when Portugal “is at the forefront of the group of countries that bet on hydrogen for decarbonization purposes, in a project essentially financed by Community funds ”, the Social Democrats return“ late, at bad times and against progress ”.
In the debate on the State of the Nation, on July 24, Rui Rio classified investment in hydrogen production as an “extremely dangerous project”, considering that the country does not have “conditions for adventures or for megalomaniacal ideas”.
