In another of his very much ‘glass half full’ speeches, Portugal’s prime minister has stressed the ‘opportunities’ awaiting Portugal as a result of world crises.
Closing a PSD conference in Maia, Porto, yesterday he said: “In a world in a state of permanent instability, Portugal is considered to be permanently stable. We have a stable country; we have a credible country. The question I leave you, and all Portuguese, with today is this: in the world in which we live, what is this if it isn’t a great opportunity?”
The PSD leader of a very much minority government, Mr Montenegro showed that he doesn’t see things through this prism at all. Portugal under his coalition AD government is “much better than it was in 2024” (under PS Socialists) as it looks after the needs of individuals, rather than leaning to the right, or to the left.
“The Portugal of 2026 is not the same as it was in 2024 (…) I know that this is not talked about much now, but two years ago we were coming out of eight years of constant disinvestment in public services and a budgetary strategy where results were achieved, above all, through higher taxes and greater restraint in public investment.
“Today, we have taxes. I won’t say they are minimal, but they are at a minimum compared to what they used to be, and maximum services compared to what we had in 2024.”
In 2024, teachers were protesting in the streets, schools were in turmoil, and security forces were demanding better pay scales.
“Today, 39 agreements later and 29 revised civil service careers later, there is still much to be done to further motivate public sector workers, but we are in a better position than we were,” he said.
The PM also alluded to the fact that the Portuguese economy has grown faster than the Eurozone and EU averages, despite global and European instability over the last two years.
“We managed to reach the end of 2024 with income tax falling, the solidarity supplement for the elderly rising, a solidarity supplement paid to pensioners with the lowest pensions, the start of the restoration of teachers’ length-of-service pay, the start of pay rises for the security forces, and all this in 2024, and when they said we were going to throw public finances into disarray, we had our first surplus,” he told his audience.
Then in 2025, amidst even greater global volatility, the government repeated this achievement and exceeded the estimates of “pessimists” who had predicted, or even hoped, that Portugal would return to a budget deficit, he said.
Concluding his speech to party faithful, Mr Montenegro said that his government is looking after families, including parents, grandparents, and children, to ensure solutions for all.
“We are looking at individuals. We do not govern by looking to the right, nor to the left. We govern by looking at each individual,” he repeated.
This was a PSD event, and thus dissenting voices/ opinions were not in evidence. SIC’s report on his speech concluded that “evaluation” of a government’s performance “is always made at the next elections.”
Source: LUSA/ SIC
