Lisbon, Jan. 21, 2026 (Lusa) - The Portuguese prime minister announced on Wednesday that the Cabinet will approve, on Thursday, investments that will enable "more competitive public transport", choosing central objectives of various government policies to secure human resources and attract more foreign investment.
Luís Montenegro was speaking in the fortnightly debate, in response to the Social Democrat (PSD) parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, who read a long open letter from a citizen, Carolina Sampaio Dinis, published on her LinkedIn page, in which she thanked the Government for measures aimed at supporting young people up to the age of 35 in buying their first home.
In his response, the prime minister said that the Government was simply "doing its duty" and announced new developments in the area of transport, without giving any details.
"Tomorrow, at the Cabinet, we will decide on important matters in the area of public transport. We will have more investment in mobility, so that we also have competitive public transport and even more factors that contribute to quality of life," he said.
The head of the government said that one of the government's central objectives is that "people feel good, those who are already in Portugal and those who may want to come to Portugal to build their life projects".
"That is the government's duty and we are here for that very purpose. We are here just for that, we are here concentrated and focused on that," he said.
Montenegro also highlighted, as another central objective, the attraction of foreign direct investment, repeating figures that had already been announced on Tuesday by the Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade (AICEP).
"2025 was a record year for investment attracted by AICEP, comparable only to the year in which we signed the Autoeuropa (VW car factory, in the Palmela region) contract (...) We are talking about €3.59 billion in contracts signed in 2025," he said.
Montenegro said that this investment, made in various areas, will enable Portugal to attract "investment projects that provide predictability for the entire segment of each of these areas and also give human resources the conditions to settle here".
While Hugo Soares read the letter from the 33-year-old woman, there was a lot of murmuring from the various benches in the chamber, which the PSD parliamentary leader lamented, taking the opportunity to thank the Government for various public policies, with a special mention for the minister of health, Ana Paula Martins.
"The essence of public policy is to change people's lives. It is to solve the concrete problems in the lives of each and every Portuguese citizen. When in Braga, Madam Minister of Health, today there can be cardiothoracic surgeries to save the lives of many Portuguese people, we have to thank you. When waiting times in hospital accident and emergency departments decrease year after year, we have to thank the Government," he said.
The prime minister agreed with this assessment and responded directly to the open letter.
"She doesn't have to thank us, we have to thank her for trusting Portugal, we have to thank young Portuguese people for believing in Portugal and we need them to believe in Portugal," he said.
Montenegro took advantage of the opportunity to review some of the measures already taken by the government in terms of housing and civil service enhancement of pay.
"On behalf of the government, what we can say is that our action aims to transform the country, to deal with what belongs to everyone, to reform the country on behalf of everyone so that we can intervene and change everyone's lives," he said.
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