Lisbon, Aug. 12, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister on Wednesday rejected the suggestion that the past few weeks had been turbulent and stated that the Government «works every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week», calling on the media to reflect on their priorities.
Luís Montenegro was speaking to journalists at the Cascais marina, in the Lisbon region, after observing operations on the Portuguese Navy's ocean-going patrol vessel «Setúbal», alongside the defence minister, Nuno Melo, and the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Jorge Nobre de Sousa.
When asked whether the trip had been turbulent, as the Government's recent weeks have been, the prime minister rejected the implication in the journalist's question.
«Neither was this trip turbulent, nor have the Government's recent weeks been turbulent. The Government works every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with many results to show for it,» he emphasised.
Luís Montenegro added that «the country pays little attention to this and sometimes focuses more on things» which «end up, in some way, distracting the country itself from what is most important», calling on the media to reflect on this.
«This is a point for reflection that I leave with the country and, whilst I'm at it, with the media as well. Because everything is important, and I am not detracting from the relevance or importance of the work that is done, of scrutinising the Government's activities and everything that may, in the Government's eyes, be less favourable. But it is important to tell the country that there is more to it than that,» he maintained.
He then praised what he described as a «country growing economically much faster than the rest of the European Union», with «record levels of employment» and «where incomes are rising».
On 21 July, a source from the prime minister's office told Lusa that Luís Montenegro had decided not to take a summer holiday this year, as he was «coordinating the Government's activities», taking only a few days off as his schedule allowed.
In last Friday's edition, the daily newspaper "Correio da Manhã" reported that «the prime minister said he wasn't going on holiday», but «in the end he did».
The newspaper wrote that Luís Montenegro «couldn't resist» and headed to the south of the country for «a few days of rest and time on the beach with his family», accompanied by the PSD secretary-general and parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares.
The report in the newspaper has already drawn a comment from the PS leader, José Luís Carneiro, who criticised Montenegro's «antics»: «Adventures, adventures, adventures – the one that has surprised me most in the last few hours is actually that we have a prime minister who swore blind he wasn't going on holiday» and to see him «on holiday with the parliamentary leader», he said.
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