Speaking in Braga, the BE’s leader, Catarina Martins, acknowledged that the minimum wage has already increased by “almost 20 percent” in the current parliament, but argued that the increase could be “more ambitious”.


According to Martins, “it is not acceptable” that someone working full-time cannot “escape poverty” even with the €95 increase in the minimum wage implemented in the current parliament, with the figure now €635 for the public sector and €600 for the private.


“It is still very low, one of the lowest in Europe and grocery shopping has the same cost,” she said. “We really need to boost the national minimum wage and the Left Bloc is proposing, for January 2020, [an increase to] 650 euros in the private sector and in the public sector … supporting the rights of all.”