Marques Mendes and Gouveia and Melo argue that government, unions and bosses reach agreement on changes to the labor package after the general strike. Catarina Martins and António Filipe completely reject the changes proposed by the Executive of Luís Montenegro.
This Saturday, Luís Marques Mendes took his two oldest granddaughters to the Lisbon Christmas party, Wonderland. The candidate supported by the PSD has asked the Government for results in health, but the changes proposed by the Executive in labor matters continue to merit a profound silence from the Social Democrat. Marques Mendes feels, however, that the lighter atmosphere that seems to exist between UGT and the Government is his work.
In turn, Gouveia e Melo took the route to the Algarve markets, where this sailor’s greatest achievement on land continues to be on the lips of the people. “If during Covid you haven’t come to take care of this, the vaccines were for the cousin, the dog and the cat”, says a member of the public.
It is the symbolic fight of the dog and the cat, or the cat and the mouse, that seems to guide Catarina Martins’ thinking when the changes proposed by the government to the labor package come up. For the candidate supported by the Left Bloc, the Executive and workers are always at opposite poles on this matter.
Cotrim Figueiredo would only change half a dozen of the more than 100 changes on the table. André Ventura, as far as he was concerned, left a warning to Luís Montenegro.
“We need a law that protects innovation, but we must not let it take away the rights of those who work shifts, and we must not have a law that is an open bar for dismissals”, he said.
On the opposite side, there is the communist who trusts in the strength of the strike to stop the hundred changes pre-announced by the Government. As Belém is not a candidate for a job, on December 11th, António Filipe’s strike will be, above all, symbolic.
In the last 50 years, the country has faced only 10 general strikes.
