In a Country where propaganda clashes with the real difficulties of life of the majority, where the cost of living is rising and some are obtaining record profits, where wages and pensions are being stretched to make ends meet, where public services are being dismantled, at the outset with the National Health Service (NHS), where access to housing is denied and the present and future of new generations are being mortgaged, it is this Country that PSD, CDS, Chega, and Iniciativa Liberal are further submitting to the US and Israel and dragging Portugal into the war against Iran.

But it is also this Country that will have to face all the consequences of their unjustifiable choices in conflict with the Constitution itself.

Courage, options, and concrete measures—that is what is needed in the face of the situation into which they have decided to drag the country, and which demands confronting the ongoing attempt to once again shoulder the bill of a war at the service of the US military complex onto the people, where energy, banking, and large retail companies seek to guarantee and even increase their profits.

Prices are rising, everyone is paying more, the Government is lowering taxes and losing tax revenue, but profit margins remain untouched.

This is the reality that, once again, they want to impose on us, and which the PCP does not accept.

The Government is taking insufficient measures and is more concerned with safeguarding the interests of economic groups than with controlling prices.

The measures put forward are limited to the fiscal level, which, if not accompanied by price regulation, constitute above all a diversion of tax revenue to protect profits and speculation.

Yes, fiscal measures are necessary, some of which the PCP has long supported, such as ending the double taxation of VAT on ISP (Tax on fuel and energy products) on fuels, or setting VAT on electricity, gas, and telecommunications at 6%.

But it is urgent to go ahead with regulation and price fixing, as is being done in France or Japan with fuels, and in Germany regarding electricity prices for productive activities.

As is done in Spain, which, among other measures has fixed the price of gas cylinders.

Just as is done, and rightly so, with fuels in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, or with medicines throughout the national territory

The situation demands measures on several fronts, but above all, it demands courage.

The courage to regulate prices in the basic food basket.

A measure that goes far beyond zero VAT, which, if taken in isolation, as seen in the past, leads consumers to pay high prices, producers to see prices paid to their production shattered, the State to forgo millions of euros in taxes, and large retailers to contribute zero; the same large retailers that in 2025 obtained record profits while the price of the basic food basket continued to rise.

Courage is needed to face the reality that everyone feels in their bones, and which was once again evident with the immediate rise in fuel prices.

When the price of a barrel of crude oil will only rise in May, fuel prices climb even faster than one's own shadow, even if that fuel was refined and purchased weeks or months ago.

Even the Energy Sector Regulatory Authority acknowledges the price-fixing surrounding fuel prices, even though nothing is done to protect consumers and the national economy.

This makes the PCP's proposal to regulate fuel prices even more urgent, taking into account the realities and difficulties faced by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and farmers, in contrast to the 20% increase in Galp's profits.

It is unacceptable that the same gas cylinder, from the same brand and the same company, costs almost twice as much in Portugal as it does in Spain. This is not the market functioning; this is exploiting people to the fullest extent.

Let there be the courage to fix the price of a gas cylinder at 20 euros for everyone.

The Government is putting forward measures aimed at a small segment of the population, but it lacks a measure for the other two million people who rely on bottled gas.

It was already necessary, but now it is even more obvious and urgent to generalise access to regulated electricity and natural gas prices.

This is the moment to halt the disastrous path the Government wants to implement, forcing and pushing even more consumers into the liberalised market, with liberalised prices, at the mercy of the so-called market, whose results we know well in housing.

It is neither acceptable nor understandable that so many people struggle with brutal difficulties to pay their mortgage, while banks profit 5 billion euros a year, of which 2.6 billion euros result from the extortion they call bank commissions, many of which have no reason to exist, but which squeeze families and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Is it fair or not that bank profits should bear the brunt of the anticipated and pre-announced interest rate increases?

That is what we propose.

This was already the case following the consequences of the storms, with the promised support that, to a large extent, has not yet reached those who need it.

The situation we face and will face for a long time demands direct support measures for productive sectors and economic activity.

Farmers, fishermen, businesses, especially those in the freight transport sector, the taxi industry, and fire departments can no longer endure this.

In the case of agriculture, in addition to support for green diesel, it is necessary to move towards the public purchase of fertilizers in order to minimise the price increases that are already being felt.

This is not the time for more precarious work, more deregulation of working hours, dismissals, setbacks and the theft of rights, compressing wages and increasing exploitation, as the Government wants with the labour package.

This is the time to, with courage, guarantee stability, dignity, rights and increase wages and pensions.

Without a wage shock that addresses the rising cost of living, several thousand more people will be thrown into poverty.

It is necessary to protect those who work and keep the Country running; it is necessary to value those who have worked their entire lives; it is necessary to ensure that young people stay here, study here, work here, and contribute to the present and future of the Country.

That is also what is at stake in this debate.

We will not accept that, once again, the same people as always should pay the price for a crisis and a war that are not theirs.

We already know that this Government is on the side of war and not of peace, that it is betting on exploitation and not on the rights and living conditions of the people.

The Country does not need this; what it needs is a policy that does not subject us to the interests of economic groups and the strategy of aggression and war.

Combating speculation, controlling prices, increasing pensions and wages—that's the recipe for confronting the situation.

A policy in favour of the interests of the workers, youth, people, sovereignty, and the development of Portugal.