"Europe needs a new vision, a rejuvenated vision and when I am asked if IL will support António Costa for a position in Europe, I say no. But is it ill will? No, it is because those who in Portugal did not reform, who settled for mediocrity, who did not challenge vested interests, will go to Europe to do the same thing", said Rui Rocha, at the presentation of the IL manifesto for the European elections of June 9, which took place in Jardim da Estrela, in Lisbon.

Rocha recalled the phrase of former prime minister António Costa before the president of the European Commission, when he asked "if he could already go to the bank" to cash one of the PRR checks, to criticize what he called "a mediocre vision of Portugal with its hand out" in the European Union.

"We have too often asked what Europe can do for us and less often what our role is in Europe, how we can contribute", he criticized.

In his speech, which followed that of the top candidate, former leader João Cotrim Figueiredo, the president of IL criticized proposals presented in recent days by the top candidates of the PS and AD for the European elections, Marta Temido and Sebastião Bugalho, respectively.

"One of the parties has in its program a measure that is to promote European mechanisms that counteract the brain drain in Portugal. However, the EU is a project of freedom of movement, these people want there to be a freedom to stay", he criticized, in a reference to the PS manifesto.

As for the AD program, the leader of IL criticized the proposal to include housing in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, questioning "how many more houses will there be" with this inclusion.

"It will not change anything in the market. It is the same coalition that, three or four days ago, did not vote in favor of a set of IL measures that would allow the housing market to be dynamized and bring more houses to the Portuguese", he criticized.

Rocha took the opportunity to criticize the package presented on Friday by the Government, "Construir Portugal", considering that it falls far short of IL's ideas on matters such as VAT on construction, the rental market or the reduction of IMT only for young people up to 35 years old.

Without mentioning names, the leader of IL also criticized the top candidate of Chega, Tânger Correia, for having defended "ideas without head or tail", namely for having shown "sympathy for Milosevic", the former president of the former Yugoslavia, who was accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo between 1991 and 1999.

The IL electoral manifesto, entitled "Europe, a space of freedom", argues that "the project of the European Union is an unequivocal example of the success of liberal democracy".

In the 12-page document, IL elects economic growth as a political priority, which it considers to involve "resolutely eliminating bureaucracy, promoting less regulation", as well as "lowering and simplifying taxes, promoting tax competition between countries and regions, rejecting European taxes, promoting the simplification of tax processes to eliminate barriers to competition in the single market".

IL says it is in favor of "the enlargement of the EU in compliance with the Copenhagen criteria, with the necessary adaptations to EU governance" and a reinforcement of investment in defense and security.

The party will support, according to the manifesto, "the necessary reforms to the European institutions, such as the reformulation of qualified majority voting, with safeguards for sovereignty; or the composition and size of the college of commissioners and its respective rotating system; and even the recomposition of parliamentary committees to achieve greater efficiency".

[News updated at 2:16 pm]

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