Pedro Nuno calls for investment and blames "absence of the State"

Pedro Nuno Santos once again used social media to express his political opinions—as he has done occasionally since leaving the leadership of the Socialist Party—this time with a post titled "The Country That Doesn't Go on Vacation" to discuss the fires and the country that "is only talked about during the holidays"—the interior.

"Abandoned houses and land, elderly people alone in the countryside, families living on low wages, young people with no prospects for the future in the land where they were born," the socialist lists: "More than two-thirds of the country's territory is systematically absent from major national debates and state budgets, despite being on our television every day during the month of August. By October, it will disappear from our television screens again."

Thus, the former Socialist Party leader predicts, the people living in these areas will be forgotten for the rest of the year. "It's been this way for decades, and we all have responsibilities. When push comes to shove, the limited national public investment goes to the coast, and almost always to the same places." Therefore, he argues, a serious investment in the development of the interior is needed.

The conclusion? For the socialist, "continuing to rely on the market to develop the interior is simply repeating the same mistake ," and therefore both the market and the "absence" of the State are responsible for the depopulation of the interior.

"We need a state, a strategy, and serious public investment," argues the socialist, anticipating criticism: "And there's no point in arguing about the financial cost. A country concentrated on the coast is much more expensive (...) It's paradoxical that a country that has always complained about being small has been reduced to a small, narrow strip of coastline."

Since leaving the leadership of the Socialist Party, succeeded by José Luís Carneiro, Pedro Nuno Santos has been expressing his opinions on various political topics on social media. He has commented on the trade war provoked by the United States, but also on the government's intention to revoke parents' right to three days of pregnancy mourning ("petty, insensitivity, and ignorance," he wrote), and to argue that the EU demonstrates its "fragility, impotence, and subservience" to the US. The former Socialist Party leader remains, for now, as a member of Parliament, which is now closed for the summer recess.