Left Bloc accuses Montenegro of “total subservience” to Donald Trump

This position was conveyed yesterday by the coordinator of the Left Bloc ( BE ), Mariana Mortágua, in a statement to journalists in parliament in which she reiterated her party's demand that Portugal disassociate itself from NATO.

In The Hague today, at the entrance to the NATO summit, the Prime Minister was asked whether Portugal is committed to 5% of GDP in military spending, of which 3.5% in traditional military spending (Armed Forces, equipment and training) and an additional 1.5% in investments such as infrastructure and industry.

Luís Montenegro responded: “We will do this in a balanced and progressive manner, reconciling all our responsibilities, namely financial stability and, through it, also the responsibility of ensuring that Portuguese people receive all social responses without compromising any of our public policy axes by increasing this investment.”

In front of journalists, Mariana Mortágua pointed out that Luís Montenegro «agreed for the first time, or admitted for the first time, to agree with the target demanded by the Secretary General of NATO [Mark Rutte] and by [Donald] Trump of 5% of spending on Defense, with 3.5%, by 2035, only on armaments».

"This means, on average, spending 450 million more every year on weapons. In a country that cannot provide education for everyone, that cannot provide health care, public services, that cannot make the investments it needs in infrastructure, it is committing to spending 5% of its GDP, an additional 450 million per year, on weapons just to serve the orders of Trump and the NATO Secretary General," he accused.

For the BE coordinator, “this subservience to Donald Trump and NATO is not in Portugal’s interest and does not defend Portugal.”

Mariana Mortágua also pointed out that the Portuguese Prime Minister did not follow the choice of his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, and ended up “admitting to spending more on weapons”.

In the initial part of her statement, the BE coordinator once again defended that Portugal should leave NATO, considering it “a dangerous alliance for Portugal”.

“We have the NATO Secretary General greeting the President of the United States of America (USA), whom he calls dear Donald, and we are witnessing an intervention that violates international law in Iran. We basically have the NATO Secretary General telling the President of the United States that he managed to convince European countries to spend heavily – and this is the expression used by the NATO Secretary General – on military expenditure,” pointed out Mariana Mortágua.

The Left Bloc deputy then linked this investment to the US's interest in European military spending.

“We know that part of this military spending is destined for North American industry,” he said.

Portugal has already committed to achieving the target of 2% of Gross Domestic Product on Defense this year, without a revised budget, cuts in social expenses or harming public accounts, which means an increase of around 1.3 billion.