Caminha, Portugal, March 11, 2026 (Lusa) - The Minister of Economy on Wednesday pointed to the 13.7% increase in the average real net salary over two years as "the best result of the PSD/CDS-PP government" and an example of a reform that is being carried out "without any law".
Manuel Castro Almeida was speaking at the PSD parliamentary conference, on a panel about the Portugal Transformation Recovery Resilience (PTRR) programme, launched by the government after a series of storms hit the country, causing 18 deaths and leaving hundreds homeless.
However, the minister wanted to take this opportunity to respond to one of the messages left by former Prime Minister Paulo Portas, who was the guest speaker at the PSD conference on Tuesday.
At that dinner, the former leader of the CDS-PP considered that the average net salary is too close to the minimum wage, noting that the former pays taxes and the latter does not, and advised the government to focus on the former.
In his response today, Castro Almeida made a point of providing figures for the two years of the PSD/CDS-PP government's term.
"If we take inflation out of the equation, the real average net salary, i.e. the salary that goes into people's pockets, which allows them to go to the supermarket, grew by 13.7% in two years. Show me two other years when this has happened," he challenged.
The economy minister added that if the prime minister had decided to give all Portuguese people a 15th month's salary, this would have resulted in an 8.3% increase in the average net salary.
"Well, he gave them the 15th and almost the 16th month because what he gave was 13.7%. This is the best indicator of this government's results, in my opinion (...) Improving incomes is the main indicator of this government's results," he argued.
After several interventions by former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho calling on the government to implement reforms, the economy minister, without ever mentioning the name of the former PSD leader, argued that "there are reforms that can be made without any legislation", referring to tax cuts.
"It is a reform that does not produce results, does not lead to exuberant demonstrations, we do not set off fireworks, but then the result is felt. And where will it be felt? Precisely in the average net salary of the Portuguese," he said.
On the same panel, the minister for infrastructure and housing made a point of repeating the message that the government led by Luís Montenegro "is a doer".
"No matter how much they say the opposite, and they can continue to say it as often as they like, that it is not reformist, that it does not act, that it only makes proclamations, that it only produces PowerPoint presentations, it is not true. And we will go to the forums that see fit to say ad nauseam what we are doing. We are reformists, we put our finger on the wound, and we really want to change the country," he said.
For Pinto Luz, the PTRR is "just an opportunity to accelerate this process".
"If you like, the PTRR is almost like a dose of steroids on top of the highly reformist programme that a government without an absolute majority in parliament has been implementing," he pointed out.
The minister also referred to the government's housing measures, including tax cuts, as "highly disruptive".
"If this is not reformism, then what is?" asked Pinto Luz.
The minister for the environment and energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, also participated in the same panel, before the parliamentary sessions were closed by the president of the PSD and prime minister, Luís Montenegro.
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