Speaking to journalists at the Socialist party headquarters in Lisbon, where meetings were held in the morning with the employers' confederations and trade union leaders, Costa also pointed out that "there will be conditions to assess the effects of this legislation and then, on the basis of this assessment, see what we can do".

However, in Costa's view, "it is still too early to assess the impact" of changes to labour laws since the most recent amendment to the Labour Code only came into force in early October and there is still a rule to be assessed by the Constitutional Court.

"Now, I believe that the priority at the moment clearly is not labour legislation, the priority is clearly in the income policy and there, fortunately, there is a great consensus on this priority", he stressed.

The prime minister underlined the "willingness of everyone to negotiate", acknowledging that there was still "no consensus" on "where we want to go" because "this is part of any negotiation".

The income policy, to which he said he will give priority, also has to do, he added, "with a set of public services from health to education, to public transport, which also contribute in an important way to improving families’ disposable income, and therefore it should be a tripartite dialogue between the state, trade union confederations and employers' confederations, to decide on a trajectory".