“Montenegro is right when he says he is the same as he was a year ago. The Portuguese just didn’t know who the real Montenegro was,” stated Pedro Nuno Santos at a rally in Santarém, concluding the third official day of campaigning for the legislative elections set for May 18.
The leader of the Socialist Party (PS) asserted that “finally, after a year, the mask has fallen” from the prime minister, arguing that Montenegro and his government “are not trustworthy, which is why they deserve to lose the upcoming elections.”
“Luís Montenegro said yesterday that he is the same today as he was a year ago. Maybe he is. But a year ago, the Portuguese didn’t know who Luís Montenegro truly was. Now they do,” he emphasized.
A year ago, according to Pedro Nuno Santos, Portuguese citizens believed that Montenegro “would just become prime minister, but in the end, he was also receiving fees from companies.”
One of the key criticisms from the PS leader towards the PSD/CDS-PP government centered on economic growth. He lamented that, “unlike what always happened with the Socialist Party governments led by António Costa,” the country “is declining for the first time in many years.”
“The Portuguese economy contracted in the first quarter of 2025. It actually fell by 0.5%. Luís Montenegro is not leaving the country on a growth path. He is leaving behind a shrinking economy,” he criticized.
Pedro Nuno Santos pointed to “another very concerning indicator.”
“In this first quarter of 2025, we have a number of workers involved in collective dismissal processes that we haven’t seen since the first quarter of 2013, during the troika period. Today, we have 47% more workers involved in collective dismissal processes than we did a year ago,” he lamented.
The PS leader remarked that Montenegro “has no reason to celebrate,” highlighting “poor results” in areas such as health, housing, or the economy.
“This house, this party, founded the NHS. This party believes in the National Health Service. When we encounter problems in the National Health Service, our response is not to take public resources, abandon the NHS, and contract with the private sector. No,” he stated, criticizing AD’s strategy.
According to Pedro Nuno Santos, the “Portuguese people know well” that “when things get tough, when there are serious problems, it is the NHS that stands by us.”
“Why do we tell the Portuguese that they can trust the Socialist Party? We want a government for everyone. We do not want a government for a minority,” he said.
After a speech in which he reviewed some of PS’s main proposals for these elections, the PS leader made a “plea for votes for the PS.”
“We do not promise everything to everyone, but what we do promise is for everyone. A vote for the PS is a vote for secure change,” he said.
