PM’s ‘prudent’ tariff response ‘scores electoral points’ – president
"The measures that have been announced, agreed with the employers' confederations, are prudent," said the president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Portugal’s president on Thursday described measures announced by country’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, in response to the tariffs applied by the US on imports from European Union member states as “prudent and careful” and said that they allow him to “score some points” in the runup to next month’s snap legislative elections.
“The measures that have been announced, agreed with the employers’ confederations, are prudent,” said the president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as he entered Porto’s Fernando Pessoa University, where he was to give a lecture. “They weren’t quick; they are careful because they are dealing with a man [US President Donald Trump] who is unpredictable. It’s not a country that is unpredictable, it’s a man who is unpredictable.”
In his opinion, he said, Montenegro’s reaction was the right one.
“It’s clear that he’s scoring a few points and taking advantage of it because he’s the government, but he would always have to do that,” he said.
Despite insisting that the measures announced on Thursday objectively favour the government,” de Sousa stressed that the current, caretaker executive had “to give its word” as the European Union did.
Earlier, the prime minister announced that the government had prepared a set of measures “totalling more than ten billion euros” to respond to the tariffs applied by the US.
Montenegro was speaking at the news conference following the day’s weekly cabinet meeting, which took place at the prime minister’s official residence in Lisbon – a meeting at which the tariffs applied by the US were discussed.
“Portugal is linked to the United States of America by a solid friendship and an intense political and economic relationship,” he told journalists. “But sometimes we have to face up to it, even with our great friends we have some differences.”