“The President will naturally consider the various arguments. I hope that we can enact this law as soon as possible. I remind you that, while this financial aid is not yet enacted, there are 130 thousand people who are receiving only 200 euros per month. Someone who has lost income due to the pandemic, who was forced to stop working in the name of public health, is unable to pay their most basic food and home bills with 200 euros a month,” said Catarina Martins.

The Left Bloc leader answered questions from journalists after a press conference at the party's national headquarters in Lisbon.

“What the parliament did was correct the government's measure, so that the decree-law would start to consider exactly what the government had promised to the Portuguese, which was to give the same financial support as last year. It is a small aid, which does not reach the national minimum wage”, she recalled.

The socialist minority executive considers that decrees approved by parliament on strengthening social support due to the pandemic crisis, which await eventual promulgation by the President, present "an overt violation" of the brake law inscribed in the Constitution, distorting the current budget.

“It seems extraordinary to us that the same Socialist Party that, at the time of the financial crisis, with Left Bloc, resorted to the constitutional court to ensure that people who had been unemployed and without income were not cut off financial support, now want to resort to the constitutional court, to cut support for people who have lost their income because of the pandemic”, said Catarina Martins.

At issue is the extension of an extraordinary financial aid to the decrease of economic activity, which includes independent workers and managing partners, among other measures, approved in a final vote on March 3, with only the PS voting against. PSD, BE, PCP, CDS-PP, PAN, PEV, Chega, Liberal Initiative and non-registered deputies Joacine Katar Moreira and Cristina Rodrigues voted in favor.