Former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho criticized today the “guilt-ridden” stance that he considers that characterizes the current Government, as well as the “regrettable cases of escape from responsibilities” and “lack of humility”.
“It is quite shocking to see politicians and government officials giving in to self-praise and arrogant challenge, if not pure guilt, instead of assuming responsibilities, both for failures and for real scandals that affect the country’s external reputation and undermine citizens’ trust in their institutions ”, considered Pedro Passos Coelho.
The ex-governor and ex-leader of the PSD was speaking today at the end of the conference “Globalization in Portuguese: African revolutions and continuities”, in Lisbon, within the scope of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of businessman Alfredo da Silva, founder of the CUF Group ( Companhia União Fabril).
Passos Coelho also criticized the statements, on December 8, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Education, João Costa, who considered that the policies of the former Minister of Education, Nuno Crato (2011 – 2015), are responsible for the poor results of 4th year Portuguese students in Trends in International Mathematics and Sciense Study (TIMMS).
The program assesses the skills of basic education students in the areas of mathematics and science.
This is “one of the pitiful cases of escape from responsibilities and the lack of humility to correct policies that, manifestly, proved to be inadequate”, says the former prime minister in the closing speech of the conference, to which the Lusa agency had access.
“The fact that the current government has preferred to blame the Government that I headed, and which has ended functions for more than five years, for these recently disclosed results that affect the school path of students who started their studies already within the scope of the reforms introduced by the current government team, in addition to being ridiculous, it only serves to underline how populism and facilitism can animate the political debate, ”Passos continued.
This posture of the executive led by the socialist António Costa, criticized by the former prime minister, ends up “disqualifying public policies and imposing a burden on future generations that weakens” the country.
“It is our strict responsibility not to leave the new generations alone in this task and in this effort, which will be all the greater because of the weight of the legacy of omissions that we have an ethical duty to avoid”, added the Social Democrat.
At the European level, Passos Coelho said that Portugal, which is “one of the oldest countries in the cohesion policy”, could be “soon, if everything continues as it has hitherto, what will be the most distant from all the others, including of cohesion, and of those in which income inequalities are more and will be more pronounced ”.
The solution, for the ex-governor, is to look “into” Portuguese society, “changing what is necessary”, namely “public and private structures”.
“To be able, if we so wish, to implement stable and reliable rules. Hold civil society and the State responsible and cultivate an example of safeguarding and separating interests that can instill the development of social capital and trust ”, he added.
The “internationalization of the economy” in Portugal, as well as the attraction of foreign investment and “a greater intensity of innovation and knowledge” are not done with an “external agenda of front discourses, disconnected from the internal transformations that we must promote”, criticized Passos.
This agenda for change must be “at the heart” of foreign policy and cannot “fail to be guided and coordinated” by the “highest official who is the prime minister”, but, “unfortunately, the country has spent too much time and too much talent wasted on the ‘mise en scene’ ”.
The country also has to look at the “global world in Portuguese, which has been walking so far and away from the concerns of public authorities, especially when there are situations that well demand another attitude of responsibility and solidarity, as it happens dangerously in Mozambique. ”.
The former leader of the Social Democrats criticized the “Portuguese passivity” that “has no explanation” in relation to the successive episodes of violence perpetrated by jihadists in the Cabo Delgado region (Mozambique).
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