These positions were expressed by the Secretary-General of PCP, Paulo Raimundo, and the National Coordinator of BE, Mariana Mortágua, during remarks to journalists at the national march organized by CGTP against the labor package proposed by the PSD/CDS-PP government in Lisbon.
When confronted with statements by the Prime Minister and PSD President regarding the potential “capture of workers’ interests and union activities by political parties closely linked to national trade centers,” Paulo Raimundo and Mariana Mortágua redirected the accusation towards Luís Montenegro, associating the executive of PSD/CDS-PP with the interests of major economic groups.
“Do they dare to talk about captured unions? It’s a government captured by banks, by the largest corporations and economic groups in the country, and which aims to attack workers as the right systematically does when it comes to power,” reacted BE’s National Coordinator.
According to Mariana Mortágua, the State Budget proposal presented for 2026, “with a huge tax break for banks, an unprecedented tax cut for banks amounting to hundreds of millions of euros,” demonstrates that “the government is captured by private interests and large economic groups.”
The Secretary-General of PCP had a similar reaction: “It takes some nerve. A government and a prime minister whose goal is to increase even more the precariousness beyond what already exists and is already massive.”
“We have a government, and in particular, four parties, PSD, CDS, Chega, and IL, completely captured and at the mercy of big economic groups,” accused Paulo Raimundo, pointing out: “Look at the State Budget, look at the tax benefits, look at the tax cuts on profits, look at all that.”
“The ones captured by big interests are the government and the government parties,” he emphasized.
Regarding the call for a general strike after ten years, the Secretary-General of PCP commented: “Times don’t repeat, but I would say there are hints. It smells like ‘troika’, but it’s not just now. It smells like ‘troika’ in the Budget, it smells like ‘troika’ in the dismantling of the National Health Service (SNS), it smells like ‘troika’ concerning education and tuition fees, it smells like ‘troika’ in labor law, it smells, it smells.”
In contrast, Mariana Mortágua noted that the PSD/CDS-PP executive led by Luís Montenegro is, “in many measures, more ideological than the government during the ‘troika'”, a period when “there was the excuse of having a memorandum.”
“Now there are no excuses. This is an ideological government with a program for the country: it’s the program to liberalize, privatize, sell what remains of public service, attack labor, precarize labor relations, and reduce wages,” she argued.
The government’s preliminary draft for revising labor legislation, which sparked today’s demonstration and the call for a general strike on December 11, includes, among other changes, the extension of fixed-term contracts, the return of the individual time-bank, the end of the ban on outsourcing after layoffs, the revision of parental leave, and the strengthening of minimum services in case of strike.
In Belém, Brazil, the Prime Minister stated that “union representatives must explain” why they are moving towards a “protest of such magnitude” when discussions with social partners are still ongoing, and mentioned a possible “capture of workers’ interests and union activities by political parties closely linked to union centers.”
