“The Socialist Party will not interfere in the decisions of the trade unions. The PS cannot be confused with the CGTP, nor the UGT”, he tells Expresso Eurico Brilhante Dias, criticizing the prime minister’s statements about the joint general strike announced for December 11th.
The socialist parliamentary leader accuses Luís Montenegro of “diverting” the discussion on labor legislation, ignoring the fact that the UGT has several social democrats, including the leadership of the trade union central.“The UGT is led by many social democratswho are social democratic workers who are in the unions and in the leadership of the UGT, starting with the president, who is a PSD activist. This is a disregard for UGT”, he shoots. And he praises the role of this union center, considering that it was always available for agreements, even in difficult times, such as that of the ‘troika’.
According to Brilhante Dias, the head of government once again leads an attempt to “divert attention”, opting for the “wrong path” of confrontation. He points to what happened with the nationality law, the law on foreigners, the reduction in the IRC – the strategy remains with the labor law: “Chega’s crutch must be more or less guaranteed. And he wants to advance this reform with the right in Parliament, in particular with the extreme right, which will solve the problem”, he adds.
The leader of the socialist bench regrets that Montenegro considered the general strike “incomprehensible”, classifying it as “untimely” and “even anachronistic”. He emphasizes that the right to strike is constitutionally enshrined, being the only resource for workers to defend their rights, accusing the prime minister of a “lack of democratic culture.”
Stating that the PS opposes changes to labor law, he guarantees that the party will continue to fight in Parliament against the “attempt to weaken” work and workers’ rights on issues such as shift work and family assistance: “The Government insisted on an unannounced transformation in the electoral campaign, of which it made no mention, in a clear confrontation with the unions now, with the trade unions. The issue of reducing the duration of breastfeeding leave, for example, is completely ridiculous”, he insists.
The country, he emphasizes, has a low unemployment rate, a record number of employment and contributions to Social Security are “precisely what balances” the State Budget. “There is a job market that is holding up and balancing public accounts, but then the Government insists on this!”, he exclaims.
About new notice of Montenegro that the OE’s margin is “short” to negotiate with the opposition, Brilhante Dias argues that the PS presented a set of “moderate” and “balanced” amendment proposals. “They are proposals within a very small budgetary margin, in a Budget that is a Budget without defense”, criticizes.
The Prime Minister repeated the warning to the parties on Sunday, on the sidelines of the 4th EU-CELAC Summit in Colombia, after another record was broken in Parliament, with the presentation of more than 2,000 proposals to amend the State Budget for 2026.