“Why can’t we unite around the fact that our economy needs to be more prosperous, pay better wages, and not precarize workers?” warned the presidential candidate in statements today during his visit to the city of Guarda.
In his opinion, “discussing whether the general strike had 5%, 10%, or 20% adherence is a misjudgment,” and what needs to be discussed is why there was a general strike.
For Henrique Gouveia e Melo, the issue is that the Portuguese economy will only evolve “when employers and workers are motivated to advance it.”
“An economy that will precarize wages, through the precarization of the hiring system or too much flexibility in that system, will not develop a value-added economy; it will develop an economy of low wages, low added value, and business models that rely on a precarious system,” he considered.
The presidential candidate stated it is necessary for the social partners to find a “balance,” because “only with cohesion can the economy develop.”
“I disagree with the attitude with which negotiations are being conducted. We have to negotiate, the unions, the employers, and the Government have to understand that cohesion for a new economy is the fundamental pillar of a different model of economic development that must involve an economy that pays better wages,” he stated.
Gouveia e Melo reminded that Portugal has an “impoverished” middle class and that “20% of the population is on the brink of poverty.”
He argued, therefore, that for the national economy to have greater added value and more productivity, it is necessary “to attract and establish business models with more knowledge, more technology, and that pay better wages.”
“That’s what we have to discuss. What do we want to do? Make things even more precarious? No, we want to do the opposite. Portugal is descending the hill of progress, and we have to climb it with a different attitude.”
For the candidate, discussing whether the adherence to the general strike was 5% or 10% is “being unfocused on what is truly at stake.”
For Gouveia e Melo, “the essence of the problem is that there will be no good economy if all the economy’s participants are not motivated, and that is what I wish in social dialogue now, with the right attitude, to find that solution.”
In Guarda, the candidate visited the Polytechnic Institute, the City Hall, and NERGA — Business Association of the Guarda Region during the morning.
“Having half of Portugal abandoned means we are not developing an economy in that half; we are losing capacity. Therefore, we have to find measures to develop that half and make a plan because they will not happen spontaneously,” he said.
Gouveia e Melo advocated that the state must create mechanisms “through taxes, the placement of public administration, even military units and other mechanisms that exist to generate a positive movement in the interior, increasing territorial cohesion.”
The Secretary-General of the Socialist Party reiterated this Wednesday that the labor reform proposed by the government is “unthinkable” and will only increase the precariousness of workers, especially the younger ones.
