This new year of 2025 is born covered with renewal and hope. Renewal of policies, objectives, energy, and commitment. Hope in the results, in the opportunities we will seize, and in the difficulties we will overcome.
In 2024, following the legislative elections of March 10, Portugal initiated a political cycle change, which translated into a turning movement and transformation of the country, with a direct impact on the living conditions of the Portuguese people.
The new Government came to improve people’s lives, the lives of all people, without exception. It did not come to leave everything the same, nor to criticize or justify itself with the past. It came with a new vision for Portugal, new priorities, new choices. With a new attitude as well. Always with democratic humility, but with an unshakable determination to fulfill the program that the Portuguese people chose and approved. A program that takes care of the present and builds the future. It is this movement that enables us to progress and live better.
We are implementing strategic and structural transformations that impact the lives of families and businesses, as well as the sustainability and competitiveness of the country. We started by lowering taxes on workers' and businesses' incomes, as well as on pensions, while investing in the recovery of public services in healthcare, education, transportation, and security.
We are initiating, in collaboration with unions, a general valorization of state workers and improving salaries and careers in key public administration sectors, such as teachers, security forces and armed forces, judicial and prison system workers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
On the other hand, in the context of Social Dialogue, we managed to reach an agreement for a more significant increase in the national minimum wage (reaching 1,020 euros at the end of the legislature) and, accordingly, to stimulate the increase in the average salary.
Likewise, we are doing everything to ensure that our young people stay in Portugal, providing them with the conditions and tools to develop their personal and professional projects here, in their country, close to their families and friends, without having to emigrate.
For those who have worked a lifetime, we want to ensure a dignified old age with the highest possible quality of life. To this end, we have already updated all pensions, increased the solidarity supplement for the elderly twice (eliminating the means-testing condition based on children's income), and granted an extraordinary pension supplement of up to 1,527 euros. Furthermore, pensioners with lower incomes now have free access to the medications they need, so they never have to choose between groceries or the pharmacy.
All of this, and much more, was achieved in less than a year without compromising fiscal rigor and budget balance. We are determined to prove that it is possible to have lower taxes and better wages and pensions as a central element of a new economic and social policy that brings more justice and progress for all. The fact that we have approved the first State Budget that does not increase a single tax indicates that we are on the right path.