Government will not give up on labour reform – PM

Prime minister Luís Montenegro has insisted today that his government “will not give up” on providing Portugal with what he calls “the conditions for the country to be competitive and productive”, stating these are the objectives of the labour reform package that will remain “intact in the government’s policies”.

“The government will not give up on providing Portugal with the conditions to ensure the country is competitive and productive and, as a result, can generate more job opportunities and pay better wages,” he said at a press conference following the summit of European Union (EU) heads of state and government in Brussels.

The PM lamented that, on both the left and the right, “this strategic and forward-looking approach has not been welcomed” and that, “on the contrary, the two extremes of the Portuguese political spectrum have joined forces, using virtually the same arguments”.

Montenegro added that, in parliament, the government had engaged in a “thorough and serious negotiation process” with CHEGA, noting that “on the vast majority of issues, an agreement seemed relatively easy to reach”.

But then ‘came’ CHEGA’s “tampering with the sustainability of the social security system and the unsubstantiated possibility of changing the retirement age,” he said, adding that the government refused this.

“For the government, and for myself, pensions are sacrosanct and I will never take any measure that could jeopardise the payment of pensions in the future,” he said.

The PM added, however, that, in order to “try to demonstrate the need” not to make changes “hastily, in the heat of the moment”, the government had proposed setting up an ad hoc parliamentary committee “to examine the matter in depth, along with the proposals and their financial impact”.

“Unfortunately, CHEGA did not agree,” he said, noting that, with the rejection of the labour package in parliament, “what had already happened in the statutory tripartite talks between the government, employers and unions has now happened in parliament”.

While apparently ‘respecting’ “the decision of both the UGT union and the Socialist Party (PS), first of all, and of CHEGA”, the prime minister levelled “vehement criticism” at them all, claiming they had put their “personal and political interests, limited to their own constituencies, ahead of the national and global interest”.

Quizzed as to whether the labour reform package is dead – or whether he intends to resubmit it in the event of a PSD absolute majority at some point in the future – Montenegro stated: “All I can say on that matter is that our convictions and our proposals for Portugal remain intact.”

“We know how to read the political situation in order to reintroduce this issue at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner. That is an assessment I will make in the future,” he said.

Also questioned on his faith in the Minister who led months of negotiations only to end up with crushing defeat, the PM stressed that he maintains “absolute confidence” in her.

One point that does need to be made clear is that CHEGA did not ‘spring’ the pension-age demand on the government at the ’25th hour’, as declared this afternoon by PSD parliamentary leader Hugo Soares. Party leader André Ventura announced it over two weeks ago.

Source: LUSA