After participating in a lunch debate at the International Club of Portugal in Lisbon, João Cotrim Figueiredo addressed journalists regarding whether the scale of the general strike planned for Thursday might prompt the Government to withdraw its labor package.
“The Government will know; I would not like to be President of the Republic with a Government that gives in to the first pressures or illusions. Therefore, if it believes there is a need for legislative change, it should pursue it as far as it considers reasonable,” stated João Cotrim Figueiredo.
However, the presidential candidate, supported by IL, acknowledged that there will certainly be setbacks and negotiations concerning the package, noting that “in a negotiation, no one gets everything they want.”
When asked whether he believes the general ideas of the Government’s proposal should be maintained, Cotrim Figueiredo affirmed that they should, advocating that “it is necessary to make labor legislation more flexible.”
“I believe it is necessary to make labor legislation more flexible, not as others suggest for easing dismissals, but to facilitate recruitment, job creation, and the payment of better wages. And I believe this legislation takes a step in that direction,” he said, reiterating that if he were President, he would enact the Government’s proposal, despite having reservations on some matters.
Cotrim Figueiredo also emphasized that Thursday’s general strike will be “an exact measure” to determine whether “union interests are as representative as they believe” and if the labor revision “has the social adhesion” that the prime minister believes it has.
“And this will influence future negotiations, I have no doubts,” he asserted.
The presidential candidate noted, however, that regardless of the strike’s adherence, there will be “significant disruption in many essential services,” adding that, “besides the right to strike, which will be exercised, there is another right that may be compromised, which is the right to work for those who did not join the strike and will be unable to work.”
“To them, no one has offered a word, so I express my solidarity here with those who will earn less and have fewer opportunities to obtain income without choosing to do so,” he stressed, advocating for the necessity to ensure minimum services in sectors like transport, elderly care homes, or nurseries.
In these statements to the journalists, the presidential candidate was also questioned about Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s reiteration today of his ambition for Portugal to achieve a minimum wage of 1,600 euros and an average of 3,000, without specifying a timeline.
Cotrim Figueiredo said he did not know what “went through the prime minister’s mind” and stated that he belongs to “the school of thought that salaries are not decreed, they are paid.”
“I never assume that people are less informed or enlightened than I am. So, if the prime minister said that, perhaps he was thinking something I do not know. I cannot see what. Let’s leave it at that to avoid calling anyone demagogic,” he remarked.
