Passos Coelho went on the offensive and criticised the lack of support for his government over the last four years from all “those who thought that if everything went well, everything might go wrong for them in these elections and even if this had also to be bad for Portugal".


The current prime minister said his executive’s only priority was to avoid failure with much emphasis on the work done: “If we had been “Syrizing around as so many wanted and said would be good for Europe and for Portugal, if we had taken that path, we would have failed."


Passos Coelho continued with the dual theme underlying the Social Democratic and Popular Party coalition election campaign by recalling the state of the country when the government took office and attacking those who failed to recognise the progress made in the meanwhile and implicitly tarring the opposition Socialist Party on both counts.


"The pettiness of not recognising our success, they would prefer the country to be worse so that they might gain more votes in the elections" said the prime minister before calling on his audience “to campaign for a result that guarantees Portugal does not go backwards but, on the contrary, makes the great turnaround in this 41st year of democracy and becomes the nation we strive after and deserve.”


In turn, in the speech by Popular Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Paulo Portas, the Socialist Party came in for direct reference amidst much allusion to the alleged risks posed by the party returning to power.


"The Socialist Party is in a rut, unable to resolve the problems of the past, we are also not able to resolve their pasts, the country has already suffered enough. Let’s move forward,” Portas said.


The deputy prime minister referred to alleged Socialist plans to “attack the minimum pensions or the rural pensions” before thanking the country for the efforts made “to resolve the problem that others had created” and who “still believed, having learned little from the past, that employment is created by billboards, parties or the government.”


Portas concluded that investment created jobs and that only the coalition “defended the modern and competitive economic model able to generate more growth and employment.”