Good reason for the government’s long-faces on Sunday night – when preferred candidate Luís Marques Mendes crashed out of the ‘race for the presidency’ – has emerged today: the favourite for the country’s top job has confirmed that he will not be ‘approving’ the ‘sweeping labour reforms’ that the executive of Luís Montenegro claim are needed for the country to continue to grow.
Speaking at a meeting of businesspeople, entrepreneurs and students at Porto university, António Seguro – the man expected to be swept into Belém on February 8 – said he is also against the government’s plans for regionalisation.
Two ‘buckets of cold water’ for the minority centre-right government in one fell swoop.
Mr Seguro’s reasons for not being in favour of the proposed law on Labour Reform are that “first, it was not part of the electoral proposals of any of the parties that are today in place. Second, there has not been agreement with social partners”.
The last sentence is an understatement: unions are outraged by the proposals, which prompted the country’s first general strike in 12 years (in December) along with warnings that more industrial action will follow if concessions are not made.
Former Socialist leader Seguro – now keen to present himself as ‘the candidate for democracy’ – stressed that the agreement of social partners is “fundamental in modern societies”, for stability. Changes to the rules should not have “ideological overtones”. They should be “associated with objectives”.
To be fair, even the government’s preferred candidate was concerned by the proposals, suggesting social peace was ‘at risk’.
But Seguro’s emphatic response to questions show that he will be ‘tough’ with the current government when it tries to reach a little higher than it safely can.
As for regionalisation, Mr Seguro’s reticence appeared to be in the “creating of more jobs (for the boys)” – something all governments of the past have been criticised for doing. He said that he believes it could be possible to reorganise current structures – like the CCDRs (commissions for regional coordination and development) and CIMs (intermunicipal communities) – “to achieve economies of scale and generate benefits”.
António José Seguro is now ‘the preferred candidate’ of practically all parties that fielded candidates in the first round of Portugal’s presidential elections. Even the leader of Iniciativa Liberal (whose candidate came 3rd) has said she will be voting for Mr Seguro, albeit “without enthusiasm”.
The 63-year-old who has been out of mainstream politics for the last 10 years told his audience today that he “will never be a partisan president” – thus instantly becoming ‘even more attractive’ to any voter who does not relish a president from the ‘far-right’.
Source: LUSA/ noticiasaominuto
