“This is a time of meeting,” he said towards the end of his speech at the ceremony at which the new government was sworn in.
“It’s not tension that Portugal lacks, but serenity. It’s not a time to rub salt in the wounds, but to heal them.”
With members of the outgoing right-of-centre government looking on, Costa issued a strong appeal for a calmer national politics, and promised that his would be a government of moderation, after four years of economic austerity under its predecessor.
“Moderate will be its programme, carrying out an alternative to austerity dizziness - which only worsened our economic, social and even budgetary problems - but it will be a realistic, careful and prudent alternative.”
The new prime minister also reaffirmed Portugal’s place “in the European Union and the Euro Zone, in the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries and in the great Atlantic alliance, including in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.”
The government’s priority, though, “after so many sacrifices [when] society is today poorer and more unequal, the economy more weakened in its growth potential and the country more indebted”, is to boost households’ disposable income, combat poverty and guarantee essential public services.
Meanwhile, Portugal’s new finance minister, Mário Centeno, said that he presumes that the European Commission’s urgency to speak with him “is the same they apply to all countries, in all circumstances.”
Centeno made the comments after EC officials told journalists in Brussels that they wanted to speak with him as soon as possible to discern his and the government’s “intentions” where budgetary policy is concerned.
“We have always said that Portugal must be a member country in the euro area in the constructive sense of the term,” he said of the Socialist team, adding that this would be the new government’s attitude.
According to Centeno, the government’s main challenge is the implementation of the programme that is to be approved by the cabinet and laid before parliament.
This was later followed by António Costa saying that the government would present its 2016 budget proposal “as quickly as possible” and added that it would not be “reasonable” to wait until next March for its final approval.
Upon leaving his first European Union (EU) leaders’ summit, António Costa, was asked when his government intended to present next year’s budget that the European Commission (EC) and Eurogroup has been demanding for some time, to which he replied that although there was no precise date, it would be delivered as soon as possible.
Regarding the possibility of the new finance minister, Mário Centeno, presenting a draft version of the budget at the next Eurogroup meeting on 8 December, Costa insisted that it would be as soon as possible, without confirming the timing of such a move.