The General Secretary of the Socialist Party, António Costa, has commented that the Finance Minister might say that the country’s coffers are full, but the "Portuguese unfortunately have empty pockets.”
Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque said on Wednesday that public debt "is indeed still very high, but today we have the comfort of knowing we have the full coffers."
Therefore, Albuquerque added, "we can say that if anything happens around us that disturbs the functioning of the market, we can meet our commitments."
Albuquerque is happy that at the end of January the government holds some €24 billion on deposit, up €6.5 billion from a year ago, which acts as a cushion for the Treasury in case there is some turmoil in financial markets.
If interest rates start to rise, the Treasury can dip into these reserves to pay pensions and make interest payments on Troika debts.
This situation has rather annoyed Costa who understands the need to have a financial safety blanket but not while the country is beggaring its citizens.
Costa was in Brussels attending the European Socialist Party conference and said he did not understand this government idea that the Portuguese are bad and the country is good, as if the country were not made up from its people.
In the socialist leader’s opinion, the government does not understand that politics is the people and it pains him to see large and sensible reserves accumulate when there is such poverty and underinvestment in essential services.
