Ex-PS Socialist Party leader says Portuguese politics and governance need a “fresh direction and sense of purpose”

 In ICPT, News, Opinion, Poliics

The former leader of the PS Socialist Party, António José Seguro said he was “reflecting on running” in the 2026 Portuguese presidential elections as he laid out eight points to improve Portugal’s governance, economy, society and democracy at a lunch organised by the International Club of Portugal in Lisbon on January 8.

Text: Chris Graeme; Photo: Fernando Bento, ICPT

The former General Secretary of the PS Socialist Party (2011-2014) António José Seguro is back in the fray after almost a ten year’s absence from active political life in Portugal with speculation that he might run for the post of President of the Republic in 2026.

But the one-time Adjutant of former Prime Minister, António Guterres (2001-2002) and former MP in the Portuguese and European parliaments, Seguro did not affirm his candidacy, merely saying he was “reflecting on it”.

More recently since November he has been a regular analyst and political commentator for news channel CNN Portugal.

In his presentation, the politician outlined four historic milestones that Portugal had achieved following the 25th April Revolution: decolonisation, the implantation of democracy, the development of the Social State, and finally Portugal’s joining of the European Union in 1986.

But despite undeniable progress and development, there were still problems, he said, that had gone unresolved such as poverty which was a “social stain” on Portugal.

Others included levels of economic development and growth that were “insufficient for (Portugal’s) needs and ambitions.

A third was emigration that had originally blighted Portugal fifty years ago but had returned in force in more recent years.

At that time many young people had emigrated to France, Germany and Luxembourg in search of better lives and opportunities. And it was believed that after the revolution and the advent of democracy emigration would become a thing of the past. However, it has returned to haunt Portugal.

The only difference is that these young people are more talented – young talent Portugal needed.

A compromised democracy

In recent years António José Seguro said he felt the country was going backwards, that society was coming undone, that citizens were more focused on themselves, while democracy was weakened.

Things continuing as they were was not the solution and a change of direction was required to transform Portugal into one of the more advanced countries in Europe.

“Portugal needs to be reinvented to achieve a level of excellence, to attract and root talent. We need a qualitative leap with a sense of purpose and direction as a nation,” he said.

“We need to be collectively better, pursue excellence and be well organised,” he added.

A new direction and sense of purpose

Making a reference to the book ‘Tradition of Empire’ by Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, who compared the advanced economy of Germany with the backwardness of Portugal, Seguro pointed to Portugal’s disorganisation.

“We have to realise that the diagnoses have been made, there have been plenty of reports, there is no lack of ideas or proposed solutions, but there is no direction or intention of purpose.

“We need a clear purpose, strategy, targets and goals, and a new political culture and attitude in Portugal”, he said.

António José Seguro said that people didn’t trust one another and the rot began in the relationship between the State and ordinary citizens. “The State is always making more regulations, more laws, more interpretations on tax, because it doesn’t believe that its business leaders and citizens don’t pay more taxes because they can’t.”

Citizens he said looked at the State and didn’t trust it because they didn’t believe that the taxes collected were well managed and spent.

“We have to find ways to breaking this mistrust between citizens and the State and create a climate of trust between the Portuguese State and us – business owners and workers”.

Eight targets for Portugal

The former leader of the Socialist Party (PS) put forward eight targets: 1) Generate wealth without the need for EU community funds, which would dwindle after 2026, which meant an end to public policies based on electoral cycles.

“No one will invest in a country if there is no stability and predictability in public policy”, he said.

It also implied higher salaries and the creation of larger Portuguese companies capable of exporting goods and services overseas.

2) To have a greater ambition for Portugal’s territory and not just on  the land but also the sea. (Portugal has an extensive exclusive maritime economic zone stretching from the mainland coast to Madeira and the Azores).

Here the former MP highlighted transatlantic optical cables and the Port of Sines as an “open port to the world”.

3) Reducing energy dependence. “We have made considerable efforts in this direction but we still are very energy dependent on outside energy sources and we’re also very reliant on outside capital because we don’t have capitalists. We are reliant on overseas markets because the local market only had 10 million people, and we are equally dependent on innovation and manpower”, he said.

“What kind of manpower do we need? Unqualified manpower or manpower that is more qualified” he asked, and this had to do with the profile of the Portuguese economy and its development as a country.”

4) Technological modernisation for innovation and competitiveness. 5) Demographics – Portugal had an aging population with the amount of Portuguese living over 65 years becoming greater while the birth rate was falling resulting in fewer young people.

“We have to resolve this issue because when we look at the fertility rate in Portugal it is apparent that Portuguese women want to have less children.”

6) Eliminating poverty – “At the current rate that we are reducing poverty in Portugal it will take a century to achieve it”.

“Poverty in Portugal is extensive in a country where a poor man is the son of a poor father and a poor grandfather which means that the social elevator is stuck.”

It also meant combating social inequalities and creating a fairer country. “Our social contract needs overhauling. We created a system and regime whereby our social elevator helped people to progress and access to higher education was one of those successful policies, and worked in many aspects”, he reflected.

7) Another target was the need to improve the social protection network, meaning the National Health Service and Social Security systems.

And as for financial and monetary literacy, out of 31 countries Portugal came in the last but one position.

It was also unacceptable that people were spending as much as 15 hours waiting in casualty in Portuguese hospitals to be seen by a doctor while two systems has been created – one for those who had the money to pay (the private system) and one of those who didn’t.

The last and final point (8) was to increase the quality of Portugal’s democracy. “It is unacceptable that politics is not underpinned by a policy of ethics, that there is no sense of ethics when it comes to exercising a public post. It is unacceptable that laws are not custom-made and that we don’t have transparency in many situations”, said António José Seguros adding that “transparency is a characteristic or democracy and opaqueness is not”.

The conditions also needed to be created for better governability. “We live in new times. Parliament today has new political forces but the conditions for governability had deteriorated.

“If we don’t have stability and governability how can we decide? We may even have the best public policies, but how will we be able to carry them out? We have to find the institutional criteria, while there is time, to make sure that future governments in this country are in a position to do what is necessary”.

The ICPT event was attended by ex-Mayor of Lisbon João Soares (1995-2002), the son of the late Portuguese Socialist Party founder, ex-prime minister and president Mário Soares, the Belgium Ambassador to Portugal, Bart Lammens, the Ambassador to Portugal of East Timor, Lara Abranches, the President of the Portuguese Business Confederation, Armindo Monteiro and João Proença, the former leader of the UGT -one of Portugal’s largest trade unions, among others including MPs and municipal council heads.