Brussels, June 19, 2026 (Lusa) - The prime minister gave assurances on Friday that the Government “will not give up” on providing Portugal with “the conditions for the country to be competitive and productive”, stating that the objectives of the labour reform package will remain “intact in the government’s policies”.
“The Government will not give up on providing Portugal with the conditions to ensure the country is competitive and productive and, as a result, can generate more job opportunities and pay better wages,” said Luís Montenegro at a press conference following the summit of European Union (EU) heads of state and government in Brussels.
The prime minister emphasised that this was the “central objective” of the labour reform package proposed by the Government and gave assurances that this objective “will remain intact in the Government’s policies and proposals”.
Montenegro lamented that, on both the left and the right, “this strategic and forward-looking approach has not been welcomed” and that, “on the contrary, the two extremes of the Portuguese political spectrum have joined forces, using virtually the same arguments”.
The prime minister added that, in parliament, the Government had engaged in a “thorough and serious negotiation process” with the right-wing Chega Party, noting that “on the vast majority of issues, an agreement seemed relatively easy to reach”.
“It so happened that a condition was imposed by that party to make the proposed amendments as a whole viable: it involved tampering with the sustainability of the social security system and the unsubstantiated possibility of changing the retirement age,” he said, adding that the Government had refused this.
“For the Government, and for myself, pensions are sacrosanct and I will never take any measure that could jeopardise the payment of pensions in the future,” he stated.
He added, however, that, in order to “try to demonstrate the need” not to make these changes “hastily, in the heat of the moment”, the Government proposed setting up an ad hoc committee in parliament “to examine the matter in depth, along with the proposals and their financial impact”.
“Unfortunately, the Chega party did not agree,” he lamented, noting that, with the rejection of the labour package in parliament, “what had already happened in the statutory tripartite talks between the government, employers and unions had now happened in parliament”.
“We reached an understanding on almost everything; we reached an understanding on the overwhelming majority of issues that deserved consideration by MPs in parliament. For political reasons – and political reasons alone – relating to position-taking, it was not possible, first within the statutory tripartite talks between the government, employers and unions and now in parliament,” he stated.
Montenegro said he respected “the decision of both the UGT union and the Socialist Party (PS), first of all, and of Chega”, although he levelled “vehement criticism” at them, considering that they had put their “personal and political interests, limited to their own constituencies, ahead of the national and global interest”.
Asked whether, following today’s rejection, the labour reform package is dead or whether he intends to resubmit it in the event of a PSD absolute majority, Montenegro stated: “All I can say on that matter is that our convictions and our proposals for Portugal remain intact.”
“We know how to read the political situation in order to reintroduce this issue at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner. That is an assessment I will make in the future,” he said.
The Government’s proposal to revise labour legislation was rejected today at the first reading debate and vote, with votes against from Chega and the parliamentary left, after Chega had failed to reach an agreement with the PSD.
The bill received votes in favour only from the parties supporting the Government (PSD-CDS-PP) and the IL.
Chega, PS, Livre, PCP, BE, PAN and JPP voted against.
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