Pedro Nuno Santos, the new leader of Portugal's ruling Socialist Party (PS), has pledged to hike the minimum wage and bolster economic competitiveness amongst certain sectors, should he win the March election.

The Socialist Prime Minister, Antonio Costa resigned in November following an investigation into alleged illegalities in the government's handling of lithium, hydrogen and data centre projects, Reuters reports.

A snap election was called by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on 10th March.

The majority of opinion polls place the Socialist Party equal to the Social Democratic Party. However, analysts are concerned over a post-election crisis and a possible strengthening of the far-right, anti-establishment party Chega

According to Santos "only a more sophisticated, diversified economy will be able to produce with greater added value, pay better wages and generate revenue to finance an advanced social state."

Back in June, Portugal was in 39th place out of 64 countries in the IMD-Institute for Management Development's competitiveness world ranking, placing the three most competitive economies as Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland, the Reuters report adds

"We don't want a country in the average of the European Union, but at the top. We will only be able to transform the economy with more selective incentives... with more money for fewer sectors... during a decade," Santos stated.

Furthermore, last month, the Bank of Portugal reduced its economic growth forecast for 2024 to 1.2% from October's forecast of 1.5%, a slowdown from the 2.1% growth last year.

Santos also pledged to hike the minimum wage to at least €1,000 a month in 2028, compared to the current €820 level.

The former infrastructure minister replaced Costa as secretary-general of the Socialist Party after winning a party election last month.

Although he lauded Costa for balancing the public accounts for the last eight years, he did recognise there was an issue with housing access, as well as a shortage of teachers and doctors.