Socialist Pedro Costa compared the new government to a “melon” with “little flavor, some green parts” and others “already somewhat rotten,” and views Luís Montenegro as having the demeanor of “someone who has never been prime minister.”
“Luís Montenegro spoke about the need for vision and bringing more ambition. It seems like the speech of someone who has never been prime minister, of someone who is a prime minister for the first time. We have heard that governments are like melons, but this melon has a problem: it is already open. We know it has, mostly, little flavor, some green parts, and, on the opposite side of the melon, some parts already somewhat rotten,” explained Pedro Costa, during a commentary segment on CNN Portugal.
The nearly 60 new government members, including ministers and state secretaries, took office this week. Among repeat and new members, find out who is who.
For the son of former Prime Minister António Costa, the composition of the new administration brings “little newness,” but the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, deserves “special mention.”
“She will be, more than a lightning rod, a bumper for Luís Montenegro, for the clashes he will have during the summer with closed emergencies and with the report that will likely come from the Inspectorate-General of Health Activities, about the INEM strike where, all indicates, there will be responsibility on the minister or the state secretary,” the socialist added.
It should be noted that the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, accepted last week the list of 43 state secretaries proposed by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro for the XXV Constitutional Government, two more state secretaries than in the XXIV.
In total, the administration will have 60 officials, including the prime minister, of which 20 are women (33%), compared to 24 out of 59 (around 40%) in the previous government.
Besides a new Ministry of State Reform, with two new state secretaries, there is also a politically significant change: Rui Freitas, who was until now deputy and presidential state secretary, will also handle Immigration, an area that has been at the center of debate.
