“I just wanted to say that we have an extraordinary team of secretaries of state to fulfill the mission assigned to us by the prime minister to combat bureaucracy for the good of Portugal and all Portuguese,” he said, postponing further explanations for later.
The minister was speaking to journalists outside the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda in Lisbon after the swearing-in ceremony of the 43 secretaries of state of the XXV Constitutional Government, a PSD/CDS-PP coalition, the second led by Luís Montenegro.
Gonçalo Saraiva Matias is among the new ministers of the new executive, as well as the portfolio he undertook.
The Ministry of State Reform includes two secretaries of state, specifically for Digitalization, Bernardo Correia, and for Simplification, Paulo Magro da Luz.
On Thursday, in his inaugural speech, the prime minister declared a “war on bureaucracy” and a “backyard culture” among public administration entities, ensuring that “state reform is to be done” without being “against anyone.”
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro left without speaking to the journalists, simply wishing “good work to all.”
The Minister of State and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, also refused to speak to the media, similar to what happened upon entry on a day when the Bank of Portugal released its forecasts and continues to anticipate a return to negative budget balances this year, having worsened the deficit projection for 2026 to 1.3% of GDP.
The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, stated that at the end of today’s Council of Ministers, the first of the new Government, the usual briefing to journalists is “not planned.”
“Today is internal work,” he indicated, noting that there would be a moment open to the media, namely for image collection at the time of the group photograph of the members of the executive.
Leitão Amaro also refused to comment on the deficit forecasts.
