"We don't want to grow 2% per year. We want to grow 3%, 3.5%, 4%. We want the minimum wage not to reach 1,100 [euros]. That is the objective we have for this legislature, but we want more. That it reaches 1,500 or 1,600," he said at the closing of the X National Congress of Social-Democratic Mayors (ASD), in Porto.

The Prime Minister, who on Friday had suggested taking advantage of the possible changes to labour laws to raise the minimum wage to €1,500 and the average wage to €2,000 or €2,500, said that he does not want "the average wage to reach €1,600 or €1,700," but rather that it "reach €2,500, €2,800 or €3,000."

The Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luís Carneiro, accused the Prime Minister of "throwing a carrot" at workers by talking about raising the minimum wage to €1,500, in an attempt to deflate the general strike.

Both upon entering and leaving the Auditorium of the Higher Institute of Engineering of Porto (ISEP), where the congress of Social Democratic mayors took place, Luís Montenegro declined to make any statements to journalists.

"We want, effectively, to create the wealth that can combat poverty. We want a country that thinks about and executes a development project that can be lasting, that can be consistent, that can be robust enough to be increasingly exemplary, as it already is today, on a European scale," he stressed in his speech.

Economic goals

The PSD leader also lashed out at those who "doubt" the Government's ambition: "These are the same people who doubted last year that we would achieve our budgetary and economic goals. We surpassed them. These are the same people who doubted again this year, and we will surpass them again," he assured.

The Prime Minister also anticipated that "in a year" his words "will make even more sense," as well as in four years, at the end of the legislature and municipal mandates, both of which end in September 2029.

Faced with this confluence of timelines, the Prime Minister stated that both the government and the PSD mayors, who hold a majority following the October municipal elections, have "the knife and the cheese in their hands" regarding the transformation of the country.

"It's in our hands, not in anyone else's," he stressed, warning that the Social Democrats will "have to govern well in both the central and local levels."

For Luís Montenegro, "if the majority of mayors have a political philosophy closer to that of the Government, the level of responsibility of the dominant party is even greater."

"We don't have to be afraid of that. We have to take that and use it well," he told the mayors.

In his speech, he also said he wanted those elected by the PSD be with the party "because they are qualified, because they know how to do things well, because they represent what is good" in the communities.

"To combat extremism, populism, those with dictatorial, authoritarian tendencies, we really need to seek out the best, those who are good, and confront those who are less good," he stated.

He further reinforced that "at the local and intermunicipal level, all the conditions exist for the level of competence to be strengthened, obviously with appropriate financial resources."

"We really need to trust the mayors. And we really need to eliminate bureaucracy, simplify procedures in the light of trust," with the "flip side" of "penalizing more severely those who violate this principle of trust."

Thus, he committed to reviewing the Public Contracts Code (CCP) and "simplifying licensing," as well as expediting opinions and reviewing deadlines for pronouncements.