From health to housing, including raising Portuguese incomes, Pedro Nuno Santos made five promises at the PS National Congress.
Pedro Nuno Santos revealed his ambition to make Portugal “a country at the top in terms of quality of life, security and innovation” in the European context. To achieve this, the new PS leader considers it necessary to “change the specialization profile of the economy”, as he said in his closing speech at the party’s 24th National Congress this Sunday.
At the heart of this objective, the PS secretary-general pointed out that choices need to be made that invariably involve investing more money in fewer sectors. “We need to make choices based on the entrepreneurial, scientific and technological skills that already exist in Portugal,” said Pedro Nuno Santos.
Among the main promises he made in his speech, five measures stand out:
22% increase in the minimum wage by 2028
“The current government had set a target of increasing the national minimum wage from the current 820 to 900 euros by 2026. We propose that, by the end of the next legislature, in 2028, the minimum wage should reach at least 1,000 euros,” said Pedro Nuno Santos.
In order to promote nominal growth of 22% by 2028 (around 5.1% on average per year), the PS leader also said that he would revise the income agreement recently negotiated in social concertation, “so that the increase in the minimum wage can be associated with an increase in average wages.”
With regard to pensions, Pedro Nuno Santos guaranteed that, if he becomes prime minister, he will comply with the law that regulates their updating, “guaranteeing a minimum increase for the lowest pensions.”
Updating rents based on salary trends
At the heart of the “economic transformation and defense of the welfare state” measures that Pedro Nuno Santos intends to promote is also the housing sector, an area he oversaw between 2019 and 2022.
“Our goal is to define, together with INE, a new index for updating rents that takes into account the evolution of salaries,” the PS leader said in his speech this Sunday.
At the heart of the idea proposed by the PS leader is the possibility that, if inflation is higher than 2%, the updating of rents will take into account the evolution of family salaries. If inflation is 2% or less, rents will continue to be updated as they are today.
Broadening the sources of Social Security funding
At a time when there is so much talk about the sustainability of Social Security, Pedro Nuno Santos revealed his desire to broaden the sources of funding for the system, which currently depends almost entirely on workers’ contributions.
According to the PS leader, his idea is to “discuss and implement a reform of the sources of funding for the Social Security system, so that its future sustainability does not depend solely on contributions paid by workers.”
Strengthening oral health in the SNS (NHS)
As well as pledging to invest in modernizing the equipment used in the National Health System (SNS) and guaranteeing greater management autonomy and the reduction of bureaucracy in SNS processes, Pedro Nuno Santos said he would promote an oral health program in the SNS.
“In this effort, it will be essential to create a career in dentistry in the SNS,” said the PS leader, underlining his intention to make “the oral health of the Portuguese become a concern of our National Health Service.”
Increasing teachers’ salaries
Education was another of the areas highlighted in the new PS secretary-general’s speech. As a way of ensuring that public schools are able to attract and retain more professionals, Pedro Nuno Santos pledged to pay teachers more.
“We will increase entry-level salaries for teachers,” the PS leader guaranteed. In addition, he said that “we will give greater balance to the career, reducing the differences between the first and last steps”, in order to make “the teaching profession more attractive.”