Former Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho has warned current Prime Minister Luís Montenegro that "time is running out" for his government, urging him to pursue a truly reformist agenda for the country.
The warning appears in the preface Passos Coelho wrote for the book "Portugal na Paz dos Bloqueios" (Portugal in the Peace of Blockages) by Pedro Gomes Sanches, as first reported by the newspaper Expresso.
Passos Coelho wrote that the three years still remaining in the current legislature should not be wasted lamenting what has been left undone, but should instead be used to rapidly widen the agenda of reforms. He argued that Portugal needs a transformative agenda spanning two legislatures.
In a direct message to Montenegro, the former head of government added that even if a party loses at the ballot box, it loses with the dignity of its convictions.
Passos Coelho led Portugal's government between 2011 and 2015, a period marked by an international bailout and deep austerity measures. He remains a senior figure in the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), the same party Montenegro now leads. Montenegro has served as prime minister since 2024, heading a coalition government.
Study points to low productivity
The warning coincided with the release of preliminary conclusions from a study that Passos Coelho is coordinating alongside former Socialist Party (PS) lawmaker Sérgio Sousa Pinto and Nuno Botelho, president of the Porto Commercial Association.
The study, divided into two phases, aims to diagnose the main obstacles to Portugal's economic and social development. Its first phase concludes that low productivity is the principal barrier to growth in the Portuguese economy.
According to the study, titled "Bloqueios versus Reformas: uma visão para Portugal" (Blockages versus Reforms: A Vision for Portugal), the main preliminary conclusion is that Portugal does not face merely an isolated problem.
The initial findings were presented behind closed doors in Porto on Friday. Leaving the event, Passos Coelho declined to comment further, saying only that what he had written was already written and he had nothing to add.
The study is to be delivered to the President of the Republic and to the prime minister, with a public presentation scheduled for the end of the year.
Montenegro rejects 'laments'
Montenegro responded to the criticism on Friday during a visit to the Centro Escolar Barbosa du Bocage in Setúbal, when journalists asked him about Passos Coelho's warning on the reforms the country needs.
He said nobody changes a school, a municipality or a country through sadness and laments. The prime minister said his focus remains on ensuring equality of opportunity, freedom of choice and a fairer, more prosperous country.
Montenegro said he would not be deflected from that focus, adding that he knows the consequences of doing so, and that the journalists questioning him know it too. He concluded that the government is not there to lament anything, but to face difficulties and challenges and overcome them.
Passos Coelho also said that no one would be unconcerned by the recent controversies within the government, according to comments carried alongside the book preface.
