Luís Montenegro rejected this Wednesday, December 10, the idea that the Government is intransigent, after being asked about the general strike called for this Thursday, the day on which he hopes the country will function “as normally as possible”.
“It’s really a lie that the Government is intransigent in whatever it may be. The Government is not intransigent at all. The Government respects the right to strike. The Government governs and, therefore, has its options and has the right to defend and execute them. And coordinate them with the social partners, with the political parties in the Assembly of the Republic and, above all, coordinate them with the Portuguese people”, said Luís Montenegro in Baião, in the district of Porto, on the sidelines of a ceremony dedicated to the allocation of rural fire prevention and forest management equipment.
The Prime Minister said he did not want to talk more than about the general strike, guaranteeing only that there was no lack of dialogue. “The Government has been a government of dialogue, a government of consultation. But it is a government that has a reformist and transformative spirit and will not give up on being reformist and transformative”, he said.
“I hope the country functions as normally as possible in the face of a general strike tomorrow. May all those who want to work be able to work, may all those who have other tasks to carry out, be it students who want to go to school and learn, the Portuguese who have health care and scheduled treatments that can carry them out, those who have other interactions with the administration, those who have all their professional and social lives organized, can carry them out, because the rights of some should not obstruct and hinder the rights of others”said Luís Montenegro.
Refusing to speak further about this general strike, the Prime Minister stressed his conviction that Portugal is a country “where there is political stability, economic and financial stability”, something that, he said, “is not only felt in the daily lives of families and Portuguese people, but is also recognized at an international level”.
“We are a country where, traditionally, regardless of our differences, we respect each other. It is not worth playing this game, a survey here or tomorrow we will certainly be dealing with numbers here or there. Portugal is a country where incomes are growing, where young people have more opportunities today than they had a few years ago, where investment prospects are high, where credibility and reputation are high”, he said.
Considering that Portugal is “at the top of Europe and the world”, something that he states, describes, “with tranquility, not with pride, nor with euphoria”, the Prime Minister insisted on the idea that “Portugal is today a country with a very high reputation and credibility in Europe and the world and must take advantage of it”.
“I am the Prime Minister with the objective and an unbreakable desire to leave the country better than what I found it. I will not give up on having a country with the ambition to be at the forefront, to be at the forefront of Europe and to fight for what I believe in so that this can be possible”, he concluded.
Thursday’s general strike against the Government’s draft reform of labor legislation will be the first strike to bring together the two unions, CGTP and UGT, since June 2013, when Portugal was under intervention by the ‘troika’.
The changes foreseen in the Government’s proposal to reform labor legislation target several areas, such as parenting, dismissals, extension of contract terms and sectors that are now covered by minimum services in the event of a strike.
The strike could affect various sectors from health to transport, education, social communication, waste collection and public offices, among others.
Target of 1600 euros minimum wage “is realistic”
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro also stated that the objective of reaching a national minimum wage of 1,600 euros is realistic and will be scheduled “when there are foundations for this”.
“It’s really realistic, it’s really realistic, have no doubts. We’ll schedule it, when we have the foundations for it”said Luís Montenegro.
On Saturday, in Porto, the prime minister and president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, increased the salary targets for the country, stating that he wants the minimum wage to be “1,500 or 1,600 euros” and the average salary to be “2,500, 2,800 or 3,000 euros”, reviewing the values mentioned on Friday, when he had suggested taking advantage of the change in labor laws to raise the minimum wage to 1,500 euros and the average for 2,000 or 2,500 euros.
This announcement has already been criticized by other political parties and trade unions, namely the CGTP, which, on Sunday, considered the Prime Minister’s statement to be “a desperate act” and “an insult” to the 2.5 million workers earning less than 1,000 euros (before taxes).
The trade union central also considered the statements “an insult” to “the 1.3 million workers who have precarious employment or to the 1.9 million workers who work on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays, in the evening or late at night, who lack time and better conditions to live”.
Presidential candidate António Filipe, supported by the PCP, also stated on Tuesday that the objective set by the prime minister of reaching a minimum wage of 1,600 euros is “blatantly in contradiction with the political practice of this Government” and is an attempt to demobilize the general strike scheduled for Thursday.
The CGTP and UGT called a general strike for December 11, in response to the draft law reforming labor legislation, in the first strike to bring together the two unions since June 2013, when Portugal was under intervention by the ‘troika’.
Today the PCP’s draft resolution will be debated in plenary, in which the party proposes an “urgent extraordinary update of the value of the national minimum wage to 1,050 with effect from January 1, 2026”.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, the communist parliamentary leader, Paula Santos, recalled that there are 2.5 billion workers with a gross salary of less than 1,000 euros, of which 800 thousand earn the national minimum wage, which will be updated from 870 to 920 euros next year.
“That’s why we raise the question that a significant increase in wages is a national emergency and, therefore, we propose increasing the national minimum wage to 1,050 euros. Obviously, We believe that wages should be increased and valued in general, with the aim, naturally, of improving the living conditions of workers and combating poverty.”he declared.