Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo issued a warning on Thursday, stating that “downplaying a strike” does not appear to be “a correct attitude.” His comments followed statements from the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, who described the participation in the strike as “insignificant.”
“Downplaying a strike doesn’t seem like a correct attitude. A strike is a constitutional right. When people decide to go on strike, it has a very specific meaning, and we should respect that meaning and understand that we must return to negotiations with a willingness to negotiate, not a willingness to demand or to believe that our solution is the only one. I think workers deserve respect from all of us,” he said to the press.
The presidential candidate further argued that a “numbers game doesn’t make sense,” urging unions, employers, and the government to return to the negotiating table. “We need to advance with an economy that has social cohesion, motivates workers, but also provides flexibility,” he added.
“I believe that with common sense, this balance can be found. There is no need to attack workers’ rights that, in the end, will neither increase our competitiveness nor provide any flexibility,” he continued.
Gouveia e Melo stressed that “there is no clear evidence that some of the proposed measures, which infringe on workers’ rights, will lead to greater productivity or economic competitiveness,” reiterating the necessity “for common sense [and] negotiation.”
“Only together and with everyone for everyone can we advance towards a new economic model,” he stated.
Government says “the country is working,” unions dispute
Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, downplayed the effects of the general strike, claiming participation was “insignificant.”
“This looks more like a partial strike in the Public Service. The country is working. The participation in the strike is insignificant,” he said at a press conference evaluating the strike in Lisbon.
Meanwhile, he emphasized that “the country is calm” and asserted that “a minority” participated in the strike.
“We respect the minority – which is indeed a minority – that freely expressed themselves today with strikes and demonstrations, and we also greatly respect the overwhelming majority who chose to work,” he said.
In contrast, the CGTP estimated that more than three million people participated in the strike, which its secretary-general described as “one of the largest ever, if not the largest ever.”
“Today we have a big, big, big strike,” added Tiago Oliveira.
It should be noted that the general strike on December 11 was called by the CGTP and UGT against a proposed revision of the Labor Code. This marks the first joint strike by the two centers since June 2013, when Portugal was under ‘troika’ intervention.
The presidential candidate and leader of Chega, André Ventura, remarked on Thursday that if the government “thinks everything is normal, they don’t understand anything about what is happening in the country,” regarding the general strike that paralyzed the country.
Daniela Filipe | 18:24 – 11/12/2025
