The first meeting, at noon, is with representatives of the CIP, the Portuguese Business Confederation. That is to be followed by meetings with the largest trade union federation, the CGTP, with the Confederation of Trade and Services (CCP), with the Portuguese Farmers’ Confederation (CAP) and with the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP).

According to the head of state, the meetings are ones that are organised on a regular basis, but this time they are taking place “before the submission to parliament of the state budget bill for 2018" at his choice.

De Sousa also said that he had delayed the meetings to October to avoid "any intervention that might touch the electoral campaign" for last Sunday’s local elections.

At the end of last month, the president warned against "the temptations of ever shorter electoral cycles” and called for priority to be given to sustainable economic development and debt reduction. He argued that "growth requires a focus on investment and exports, as well as clear changes in the organisation and posture of the powers that be" – which he did not specify - "and, of course, attention to good industrial relations".

This, he said at the time, “is a theme to which I shall return after this electoral time is over and the parties and economic and social partners [employers and unions] have been heard.”