Porto de Mós, Portugal, Dec. 4, 2025 (Lusa) - Presidential candidate Henrique Gouveia e Melo on Thursday defended the creation of a "new social contract" to develop Portugal and avoid "a three-speed country".

At the Vasicol factory in Porto de Mós, in the district of Leiria, the candidate highlighted the unit as "a success story" that "employs around 600 people".

"It's a story that should be told. It started with traditional pottery and, after two generations, with technology, the same family developing the business, today it exports more than 98%," he said.

In addition to its commercial results, that company "is also a success in social terms" because "in an inland area of the country, it creates jobs, creates a social fabric, keeps people in the territory, and that is very important," he pointed out.

Gouveia e Melo cited Vasicol as an example to show the need to "look at the interior of the country".

"We don't want a three-speed country, it's bad for the country. We have to create a new concept, a new social contract, which develops the country as a whole, with thriving companies, but companies that are people-oriented," he stressed.

In Porto de Mós, Gouveia e Melo found many immigrant workers, a third of Vasicol's workforce:

"It's also a positive aspect. I often say that immigration must be accompanied by integration. And the people who are here are fully integrated. They have their wages, they regularise their situation in the country over time, they bring their families and, over time, after one or two generations, they become part of our community," he said.

For the former Chief of Staff of the Navy, immigration plays a decisive role in demographic renewal:

"If we do not renew our community, according to statistics, in 40 or 45 years, we will be practically half the number of Portuguese people we have now, that is, six million Portuguese. And that also weakens the country. An uninhabited country is a more fragile country," he argued.

The candidate identifies Portugal as "the country of big cities, the country of the coast and then the country of the interior":

"It is a country of three speeds, and that is bad for the country's cohesion, it is bad for the country's economic potential, because we have a lot of unoccupied areas that could generate wealth and are not generating wealth."

Gouveia e Melo argues that it is necessary to "look inland" and work towards having "a country as a whole":

"We are, roughly speaking, between 60% and 70% of the per capita income of the most developed countries. Therefore, we have to pull our carriage forward and not let it fall behind. That is why we need ambition," he concluded.

MLE/ADB // ADB.

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