Lisbon, Nov. 13, 2025 (Lusa) - The government said on Thursday that it is "open to dialogue" to avoid a general strike, arguing that the planned stoppage "does not serve the interests of the Portuguese people", without wishing to address the possibility of minimum services for the time being.

"The Portuguese people want dialogue to move forward, they don't want the country to stop," said the minister of cabinet affairs, António Leitão Amaro, at the press conference after the weekly cabinet meeting, where he said that the government had made "effective approaches" to the positions of the trade unions.

The minister argued that "the legislative procession is still in its infancy", using an expression already used by the president of Portugal, and, when asked if the government acknowledged decreeing minimum services for the general strike scheduled for 11 December, he refused to address the issue for the time being.

"We're not going to escalate the language at a time when there are decisions to be made, there aren't even pre-announcements, and we hope there won't be any," he said.

Leitão Amaro never responded to the fact that some PSD leaders also have differences over the labour package under discussion in the social consultation - such as UGT leader and PSD vice-president Lucinda Dâmaso or the leader of the Social Democratic Workers, Pedro Roque.

"You asked me who this strike is for, and I'll tell you who it's not for: the Portuguese, who are going to be stranded at the train station, who are going to be stranded outside public services, who want to work and can't, who want to leave their children to learn and can't," he said, after the prime minister had said that the strike would only serve the partisan interests of the PS and PCP.

The minister of cabinet affairs declined to discuss any specific meetings with the UGT, saying that there have been many, and defended the fact that "the government is taking concrete steps, effectively approaching the social partners, showing a real, concrete and serious openness to dialogue".

"That's why we can't understand - and I don't think the Portuguese do - why, while we're in a phase of talks and dialogue, there's a strike and the country is being brought to a standstill," he said.

Leitão Amaro repeated some of the arguments already used by the prime minister, saying that the general strike "is incomprehensible" when there are increases in minimum and average wages, tax cuts and a "history of agreements" during the year and a half of PSD/CDS-PP governance.

"No one can understand why some people want to bring the country to a standstill, damaging the lives of so many millions," he criticised.

At the insistence of journalists—who also asked him whether the government would negotiate the labour package only with the far-right Chega party the minister reiterated, at this stage, his willingness to engage in dialogue in the context of social dialogue.

"Open ports, open arms for dialogue, and a proactive effort to bring things closer together," he summed up.

The UGT today approved the decision to go ahead, in convergence with the CGTP, with a general strike on 11 December against the government's draft reform of labour legislation, an announcement made after the Cabinet press conference had ended.

The decision was approved today by acclamation and unanimously by the General Council of the General Workers' Union (UGT), at the proposal of the national secretariat.

This will be the first strike to bring the two trade union centres together since June 2013, when Portugal was under the “troika” intervention.

SMA/ADB // ADB.

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