Portugal: economics minister learns his lesson
30/04/2014
Earlier this year, Mr Pires de Lima decided to travel to Milan to support Portuguese footwear brands who were exhibiting at the Micam event. In a speech, he praised the shoe industry for achieving double-digit growth year on year even during Portugal’s recent economic crisis and for bringing in exports worth €1.3 billion in 2013.
A journalist from business newspaper Negócios, upon hearing the Milan speech, asked the minister if he was wearing Portuguese-made shoes that morning. Mr Pires de Lima answered that “there is scope for all of us to buy more products that are made in Portugal”. When the journalist insisted that what he wanted to know was if the minister was wearing shoes from a Portuguese brand that day, Mr Pires de Lima admitted that he wasn’t.
During a more recent speech, in Oporto at the end of April, António Pires de Lima again sang the praises of Portugal’s footwear sector, holding it up as an “excellent example to many other traditional Portuguese industries”. And he said: “Even I wear Portuguese shoes now.”
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