“To those calling for responsibility regarding this labor package, the main person responsible for calling this general strike is Luís Montenegro. To avoid the general strike, he has a good solution: withdraw the proposed labor package and the general strike won’t happen,” challenged António Filipe at a rally at ISCTE in Lisbon, accompanied by hundreds of people, including the PCP Secretary-General, Paulo Raimundo.
The presidential candidate, supported by the PCP, expressed being “completely against” the proposed changes to labor legislation presented by the Government and hoped that this package would be “defeated by workers’ struggles before the presidential elections.”
“The President of the Republic will only take office in March, and I hope it won’t be necessary to exercise presidential powers to prevent it [the labor package] because I hope it will be defeated by workers’ struggles and I stand in solidarity with the general strike set for December 11,” he assured, receiving applause from the audience, who chanted, “Fighting for those who work, António never fails.”
Stating that he would be “very proud” if his candidacy were considered the “workers’ candidacy,” António Filipe warned that the labor package represents a “tremendous offensive” against workers’ rights.
Among the broad range of criticisms of the measures included in the labor package, António Filipe particularly highlighted the “practical destruction of the concept of the prohibition of dismissal without just cause,” the “extension of fixed-term contracts,” “the return of the infamous installments of holiday and Christmas bonuses,” and the “reduction of breastfeeding time for working mothers.”
The presidential candidate highlighted that the country currently has 2.5 million workers who “take home less than a thousand euros a month” before addressing a news report that indicates that, in 2026, the 16 largest economic groups listed on the PSI are expected to distribute record dividends of 3.2 million euros.
“We face a huge social injustice that we cannot, in any way, accept, because these obscene profits are the wages unpaid to workers and owed to them,” he said.
António Filipe stated that in the conflict between economic groups and workers, his candidacy has “no doubt” about which side it stands.
“There will be candidates who side with the large economic groups, there will be candidates who sit on the fence to see where it lands. I will be on the side of the workers and their struggle,” he assured.
