CGTP calls national demonstration in Lisbon for 21 November ahead of budget vote

The announcement

The CGTP-IN trade union confederation decided on Thursday, 29 October, to call a large national demonstration in Lisbon for 21 November. The decision followed a meeting of its Conselho Nacional, and secretary-general Tiago Oliveira announced it at a press conference. He asked workers to make November a month of intense action and struggle. The union argues that the fight has to keep growing as the year closes.

“The struggle has to continue growing.”

Oliveira also presented the call as a stand against the injustices workers feel in their everyday lives, and he urged them to join the actions the confederation has scheduled.

The 21 November demonstration

The march in Lisbon is built around demands for more wages and better pensions, and for the right to health, housing, education and social security. The union links these demands to the rising cost of living and to what it calls decades of right-wing policy. The announcement falls in a month that already has several protest actions planned. The demonstration is also set for just a few days before the final global vote on the 2027 State Budget (OE2027).

“Let us make 21 November a great day of struggle and a great moment of affirmation against all the injustices we feel in our daily lives.”

The 24 November rally and budget vote

The confederation will also hold a concentration in front of the Assembleia da República in Lisbon on 24 November at 10:30. That date coincides with the final global vote on OE2027. The union first announced the mobilization on 17 October, during a protest against rising living costs.

Oliveira described the budget as one of the government's main tools for putting its political choices into practice, and said the document is deeply negative for workers. He warned that the budget will only pass if the government secures someone's support. In his view, on 24 November the government is not the only one under scrutiny, since every party that backs the budget will answer for it.

Criticism of government policy

Oliveira accused the government of failing to respond to concrete problems, from the rising cost of living to investment in the National Health Service (SNS), education and housing. A CGTP statement goes further and accuses a PSD/CDS government, backed in essential matters by CH and IL, of escalating attacks on fundamental rights. According to the statement, this includes disinvestment, privatisations and the dismantling of public administration, the SNS, public schools and Social Security. The union also says the government denies the right to housing by subordinating it to profit and speculation. It describes the 2027 budget proposal as another element of right-wing policy that destroys rights and impoverishes the country.

The union's four priority areas are the SNS, Social Security, housing and education. On health it wants stronger public services and the investment needed for affordable care. On Social Security it wants higher pensions and protection of social rights, and on housing it wants answers that let families access a home at prices they can afford.

Workers' role and what comes next

Oliveira reminded workers that they helped defeat a proposed amendment to labour legislation, and he presented their mobilization as the way to change course.

“We still believe it is with the workers that we will defeat this policy course being followed by this government.”

The next fixed dates on the union's calendar are the demonstration in Lisbon on 21 November and the rally at parliament on 24 November.