Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro is defending his government’s proposed labor reforms and dismissing a planned december 11th general strike as politically motivated, despite ongoing opposition from labor unions and several political parties. The Prime Minister addressed a heated parliamentary debate Friday, arguing that conditions are ripe for agreement while critics raise concerns over issues ranging from healthcare access too worker precarity and the impact of the reforms on Portugal’s social safety net. The strike threatens to disrupt the country as lawmakers clash over the future of work and economic policy.
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Portugal’s Prime Minister Luís Montenegro on Friday dismissed a planned general strike as a pretext, arguing that conditions are in place to reach an agreement on labor law reforms. The strike, scheduled for December 11, has drawn criticism from the government, which believes a deal is within reach.
“The question that arises, and it is serious, is this: why a general strike? What is a general strike claiming? From the Government and from political power,” Montenegro accused during a parliamentary debate.
“There is a pretext, which is this aspiration to make labor legislation more friendly to economic growth, more friendly to employment, more friendly to workers, more friendly to higher wages. But it is a pretext, because this objective was presented to social partners on July 24 and is on the negotiating table,” he stated.
The Prime Minister assured that, at this moment, “all conditions are in place to reach an agreement that can enshrine positive aspects for all parties involved.”
“The strike is political. The strike motivates those who will never, ever reach an agreement – the CGTP – and mobilizes others who, frankly, have fallen into the CGTP’s trap,” Montenegro asserted.
According to the Prime Minister, “this strike doesn’t make sense.”
However, Montenegro began his remarks by stating that “the Government has full respect for the right to strike, for the legitimate exercise of that right, and never calls it into question.”
Enumerating the reasons why he believes the circumstances do not justify the December 11th stoppage, the Prime Minister pointed out that “the average income of workers in 2024 increased by 6.7 percent – the largest increase in the OECD – achieved through increased wages and reduced taxes.” He also highlighted that the tax burden “is decreasing” and that Parliament approved the State Budget for 2026, “at a time when the National Minimum Wage is expected to rise again.”
Addressing the Socialist bench, the Prime Minister said he hoped the PS would recognize that “we are now on the right track” and “building the Portugal of the future.”
The Prime Minister was responding to statements made by Hugo Soares, the parliamentary leader of the PSD, who argued in his speech that, in two years, Montenegro’s governments “have reduced taxes on those who work four times” and that “companies today are in a better position to pay better wages.”
“In the eight years of the Socialist Party, with taxes at their maximum, with companies paying more taxes, with all careers needing reevaluation, there were zero general strikes. No general strike was called,” Soares reminded the assembly.
“Therefore, we are resolved: these are not the reasons for calling the general strike,” he concluded.
Hugo Soares argued that the PS’s arguments regarding the legitimacy of the labor reform, which they say was not announced in the Executive’s program, are invalid. “I will advise the PS deputies and the country” to read the Democratic Alliance’s election program more carefully, he declared.
André Ventura focused his intervention on the issue of health, arguing that the sector is facing a “civil war” and accusing the Executive of reducing support for tests by ten percent, which he called “inhumane” for a government that claims to be humanist.
The Chega leader also highlighted the “one and a half million” people without a family doctor and denounced a 20 percent increase in waiting times for surgeries. “I want concrete solutions,” the deputy demanded.
“No one in this country should have to wait 18 hours to be seen in a hospital,” he defended, accusing the Government of “incompetence” and challenging the Prime Minister to “show some light that they are doing something and that the Minister of Health is worth the salary she earns.”
In response, Luís Montenegro said that many things are going well in the National Health Service and highlighted the trend of decreasing waiting times, as well as the increase in Portuguese people with a family doctor.
“We are working to ensure that the SNS has more capacity to respond,” he assured.
Tuition fees were another issue raised by the president of Chega, who said there were “reasons for general discontent” in a country where “20 percent of young people are unemployed.”
Therefore, André Ventura considered the increase in tuition fees “wrong in the country we are in” and accused the Executive of wanting to “punish young people.”
Luís Montenegro responded that the increase in tuition fees by 13 euros is “a fair measure.”
The Secretary-General of the Socialist Party also brought the reduction of the ISP discount to the debate, accusing the Government of “failing to tell the truth” when it promised to lower taxes.
José Luís Carneiro pointed out that the increase in revenue “would allow for a two percentage point reduction in VAT on food products,” something proposed in the detailed debate of the State Budget for 2026, but voted down by the right.
The Socialist also addressed the Social Security balance, which is expected to be one billion euros, instead of the four million euros referred to by the Minister of Finance, and the changes to labor law, citing the Social Democrat Silva Peneda and the Centrist Bagão Félix as examples of members of the AD parties who are against the presented reform.
In response, Luís Montenegro accused the Socialist leader of “having a very passive attitude” towards reality, without “courage to transform” public policies, and reminded countries with socialist governments that have labor laws similar to those proposed by the AD Executive.
During the Socialist’s intervention, the PSD parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, asked for the floor for an interpellation, to distribute a photocopy of pages from the AD’s election program on labor reform.
“Those drowning in bureaucracy are the Government,” says IL
The leader of the Liberal Initiative, Mariana Leitão, argued that the Finance Minister’s ambition is far from being realized and that the Government is drowning “in layers of bureaucracy.”
Mariana Leitão also pointed out that, within the scope of state reform, working groups were created to evaluate indices and performance indicators when groups already exist for these functions.
In response, Luís Montenegro considered the creation of the working groups “a good decision” and said that it is necessary to decide on reforms and wait for their result, indicating that a social state that provides a capacity to respond to citizens and companies is more effective.
“We cannot have a system where the various departments of the State wait for each other,” he declared.
The Livre party wanted to know “how stability can be demanded when the waters of the country are stirred up like this, when the rights of workers and families are directly confronted?”
In her speech, parliamentary leader Isabel Mendes Lopes accused the Executive of being “absolutely intransigent” and of making the lives of Portuguese people “precarious and unstable.”
“It was the Government, with this untimely document and with this arrogant and incomprehensible attitude, that led to the scheduling of this strike and shows no signs of backing down from this arrogance,” she affirmed.
The Prime Minister returned the accusations of arrogance, arguing that “pure and simple arrogance” is the fact that the Livre is asking the Government to withdraw the labor reform proposal.
PCP says proposed change to labor law was done “the American way”
The Communist Paulo Raimundo focused his intervention on the proposed changes to labor law, accusing Chega and the Liberal Initiative of “trying to avoid the issue” during this parliamentary debate.
The Secretary-General of the PCP questioned the Prime Minister about the number of workers in outsourcing, in precarious contracts and in “unregulated hours,” something that led Montenegro to ironically ask the Communist leader if “we need to change the labor law.”
“I almost got caught there,” Raimundo joked, responding to the question he had put to the head of Government, recalling that 30 percent of workers have precarious contracts.
Luís Montenegro admitted that there will always be precariousness, although he prefers not to use the term, but gave the example of young people who choose not to sign permanent contracts in order to remain “free to jump from company to company” and to “look for other opportunities.”
The intervention led Paulo Raimundo to question twice what “the article of the law prevents someone with a permanent contract from changing companies” is, stating that there is no legal rule and accusing the Government of wanting to “impose an American law.”
Montenegro described the end of the Communist leader’s intervention – who stated that workers “are building the defeat” of the labor law – as “dated” and accused him of not looking to the future.
Paulo Núncio, parliamentary leader of the CDS-PP, began by lamenting the broadcast by RTP of a program about “transgender sex symbols.”
“A regrettable program that shocked and outraged many Portuguese families,” he said, speaking of “pure propaganda of gender ideology.”
Luís Montenegro deeply regretted the broadcast of this content, but recalled that he has no power to intervene in the programming of the public broadcaster.
Paulo Núncio took the opportunity to praise the Government’s package of measures for housing, with the Prime Minister agreeing that it is “a very robust set of measures.”
The Prime Minister stressed that his Government is making an effort to boost the market, offering conditions to increase the construction of houses, although he acknowledged that this effort will not have an immediate effect.
