PM says country has two ‘very tough years’ ahead

Portugal’s prime minister and secretary-general of the Socialist Party (PS), António Costa, has said that the next two years will be very tough for the country in the face of an economic and social crisis caused by Covid-19, which is why his party will have to focus on the essentials.

This Socialist party idea focused on the economic and social crisis and not on other issues was the only indirect reference that Costa made to the presidential elections of January 2021, in a long speech he gave to members of his party’s National Political Commission on Thursday.

“We will have two very tough years ahead of us in the fight to protect our companies, jobs and the income of the Portuguese people. They are going to be two very demanding years and there is no optimism that we will be able to do this in less time,” he said.

Afterwards, Costa added that there is no reason not to have confidence in the country about the ability of the Portuguese to overcome this crisis, just as they did the previous one.

“To all those who doubt this is not possible, I would like to remind those who in November 2015 also said that everything was impossible,” he said, in a part of his speech in which he spoke of the rise of his finance minister, Mário Centeno, to the presidency of the Eurogroup – proof of the international recognition of the country.