"Here I am, putting myself on the line," said the Portuguese prime minister, Luís Montenegro, in a televised address to the nation on Thursday night. Timed for the main evening news bulletins, the speech was used to set out the measures against the cost of living, in particular those triggered by rising fuel prices.
Some elements of the plan were already known. This is the case of the pension bonus and the cut to personal income tax (IRS) bands, announced last week in Parliament when the government survived a no-confidence motion. But they have now been formally approved by the Council of Ministers.
