Socialist Leader Carneiro Charges the Government With Having "No Agenda for the Economy" on a Sines Port Visit

The leader of Portugal's main opposition party has accused the centre-right government of lacking any coherent economic strategy, choosing the deep-water Port of Sines as the backdrop for one of his sharpest critiques to date.

José Luís Carneiro, secretary-general of the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista, or PS), spoke to journalists on Wednesday in Sines, in the Setúbal district, during a party tour he has branded the "Rota da Economia do Mar" (Maritime Economy Route). The government led by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, he said, "is today without an agenda for the economy, and that is worrying."

Carneiro went further, arguing that the Portuguese economy "is entering a process of decline" and claiming that the country is losing competitiveness in 57 percent of its external markets. He framed the warning as a call for the government to set clear priorities at a time when growth forecasts for the year have been trimmed and external conditions have turned less favourable.

The choice of venue was deliberate. Sines is home to Portugal's largest port and its only deep-water harbour capable of receiving the biggest container ships, as well as a major energy terminal and a growing cluster of data-centre and logistics investment. Carneiro met the board of the Administração dos Portos de Sines e do Algarve (Ports of Sines and the Algarve Authority, or APS) and toured the container terminal, arguing afterwards that the port "should merit a high level of political priority."

He tied that priority to a broader agenda of infrastructure and connectivity, calling for stronger links between the port and the rail and road networks, and for energy interconnections that would let Sines serve as a gateway between Atlantic shipping routes and European markets. The Socialists have sought to position the maritime economy — ports, shipping, energy and the so-called blue economy — as a field where Portugal could carve out an industrial advantage.

Carneiro also used the occasion to stake out a clear difference with international institutions. He rejected a recent recommendation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Portugal should wind down state support for young people buying their first home. "I do not agree with that IMF advice," he said, defending the housing measures introduced under the previous Socialist government as a response to an affordability crisis that has hit younger households hardest.

The remarks form part of a sustained effort by the PS, now in opposition after years in power, to challenge the Montenegro administration on economic management rather than ceding that ground. With public finances, competitiveness and housing all contested terrain, the party is betting that voters will respond to a message built around investment and long-term strategy.

For now, the government has its own reading of the economy, pointing to continued growth, a broadly balanced budget and falling unemployment. But Carneiro's intervention at Sines signals where the opposition intends to press hardest in the months ahead — and casts the country's flagship port as a symbol of the economic direction it says is missing.