Mr Chairman, Mr Prime Minister, Members of Parliament,

With the authority and coherence of those who, from the outset, did not harbour expectations, denounced and fought the government's actions and refused any complicity with its decisions, including the State Budget, the PCP is here today presenting a motion of censure with the clear aim of defeating the government and its policies.

An initiative that is an opportunity and a contribution to give credibility to national political life and at the same time a factor of hope to pave the way for the solutions facing the country.

The difficult life that people are facing demands that the government's policy of destroying the country, which is underway and scheduled, be stopped quickly.

The succession of facts that have accumulated involving members of the government and the Prime Minister himself are not the work of chance, they are an expression of the mingling between public functions and personal interests, and of the confusion between politics and economic power.

We have long known that the government is at the service of the interests of economic groups, and we have denounced it here on several occasions.

It should come as no surprise that the relationship between economic power and members of the government is in itself a factor in discrediting national political life.

The government and the Prime Minister can and must provide all the clarifications and answer all the questions, but this will not change the inevitable and urgent decision that is needed today.

Nothing that is now said will change the facts that are known to date, and which are in themselves enough to conclude that the government has no conditions to remain in office.

The question is not and never has been what you will do from now on, Mr. Prime Minister. The question was and is what you have done so far, and what you did so far, as you know, Mr Prime Minister, should not have been done. The situation in which the Prime Minister and the government find themselves makes clarification a matter of urgency.

Not doing so today is dragging on the situation and fuelling the deterioration of national political life.

Besides the gravity of the facts, this motion of censure does not forget the essential issue: the government's policy not only does not solve the country's problems, but it also makes them worse and is today in itself the major cause of the problems and growing difficulties for the workers, families, youth and pensioners.

The Prime Minister has asked for clarification, and today is the time for that clarification.

Last Saturday, the Prime Minister had the opportunity to contribute to the elevation of national political life, he could and should have done so, but not only did he not do so, he ignored the facts involving him, he did not accept his responsibilities, he blackmailed, made insinuations and spoke of a country that doesn't exist

Contrary to what some people have said, and they have done so hastily, highly disorientated and trapped in their commitments, it was not the PCP that took the bait, it was others who fell in the net and swallowed the trick the government played to ensure its survival at all costs.

What the government wanted, and there are those who did its bidding, was for all of us to decide on the criteria, issues and timetable most favourable to the government.

The Prime Minister waved a motion of confidence that he did not present because he did not want to or even thought of presenting it.

What he had in tricks of parlance, he lacked in courage and transparency.

But that waving was enough for many to have fallen for the manoeuvre and immediately become entangled in tactics.

Faced with the trick, it was either give in or face up to it, and the PCP's response was swift and clear.

We are not used to playing politics, playing politics is playing with people's lives.

It is for the people that we want a better life, for the workers who get the country and the economy up and running, those who work shifts, night shifts, unregulated hours, in precarious work, with wages that don't meet their needs. A better life for those who have worked all their lives and have the right to a decent retirement, for the youth who have the right to live and work in their Country, for the children who need rights to grow up healthy and happy.

The motion of censure we are tabling is a factor of hope for all these people and an instrument for confronting their policy of exploitation, injustice and inequality.

An instrument for confronting a policy that submits national interests to the impositions of the European Union. Which continues and fosters low wages and pensions; higher prices for essential goods and services, including food and energy; heightens difficulties in accessing the National Health Service; the lack of material and human resources in public schools; growing difficulties in accessing housing; disinvestment in public services; the devaluation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

This is a motion of censure that confronts a policy that lowers corporate income tax for big companies; provides cover for the robbery of public resources by the multinational Vinci; encourages real estate speculation, starting with the changes to land policy.

Each and every one of the reasons that led the PCP to table a motion to reject the Government Programme are quite evident today.

The real Country is the Country of growing difficulties in accessing the NHS, of the lack of doctors, nurses, helpers, teachers and so many other professionals in public services, the real Country of undervalued professions and careers, of precariousness, of the never-ending month for salaries and pensions, of youth who can't find the conditions to remain here in their own Country, of the exploitation of those who come to our Country to work, of the drama of access to housing, of the thousands of children in poverty.

And this is the real Country that is confronted with the Portugal of propaganda and the failed idea that the Country is better off, but the lives of those who work are not.

This better Country that escapes the majority, but which is a real paradise for a handful of economic groups that are constantly raking in profits and appropriating more and more of the wealth produced by working people.

The question is to know and decide when to stop this.

Is it today or when the assault on Social Security funds is completed?

Is it when they try to make even more negative changes to labour legislation, more hours and more working time, more precariousness, more exploitation?

Is it when TAP is handed over, included in an extensive list of privatisations?

Is it when the disastrous Public-Private Partnerships for roads are renewed or when those for healthcare are implemented?

Is it when the NHS is completely dismantled?

Is it when the drama of access to housing takes on even greater proportions?

Is it when tuition fees are increased, when researchers are sacked, when more cuts are made in healthcare, wages, pensions and culture in order to transfer more resources to war?

The time to stop promiscuity and submission is when political, economic and social life is even worse and the plan of the economic groups and multinationals is materialised, or is it now?

Today is the day to put a stop to this path of disaster and doing so only depends on the decision of the Members of Parliament sitting here.

The PCP's motion of censure is an opportunity to put a stop to this policy now and to give credibility to national political life.

An opportunity to put an end to the current government crisis.

To make this motion unviable is to prolong and deepen this crisis and political instability, and in the lives of millions of people.

Mr Prime Minister, your government is defeated, that is now a certainty.

What remains to be seen is whether there is today the responsibility and will to confirm this inevitable outcome or whether there are those who choose to save the government, to give it the conditions to continue prolonging its action, bogging the country down in the degradation of national political life and exacerbating the difficulties of the majority of our people.

Each one has to assume their responsibilities Anyone who chooses not to vote in favour of the motion of censure will have to answer for it and will be associated with the more than certain outcome of this whole situation: either the government and its policies are condemned, or the government is given a hand and saved.

This is not the time for calculations, it's not the time for games of shadows, it's not the time for victimisation, and let no one think that they will not be tarnished and will step in the rain without getting wet, given the situation we are facing. This is the time to stop the government and its policies.

“People don't want elections,” some will say, but what the people really don't want is to live with more difficulties every day, what they don't want is to watch a few get rich at their expense.

To stop the deterioration of the national situation, to pave the way for an alternative policy that responds to the problems of life, that responds to the demand for progress and development of the Country: this is the path that the workers, the people and the youth are taking with their struggle and their strength.

The outcome of this debate will not change this demand and necessity, which will be imposed sooner rather than later.