section_path: Political career/Prime minister of Portugal
section_name: Prime minister of Portugal
paragraph_text: Prime minister of Portugal
  
  Aníbal Cavaco Silva did not seek a fourth term as prime minister of Portugal (in order to run for the 1996 presidential election) and the Socialist Party won the 1995 parliamentary election. President Soares appointed Guterres as prime minister and his cabinet took the oath of office on 28 October that year.
  
  Guterres ran on a platform of keeping a tight hold on budget spending and inflation in a bid to ensure that Portugal met the Euro convergence criteria by the end of the decade, as well as increasing rates of participation in the labor market, especially among women, improving tax collection and cracking down on tax evasion, increased involvement of the mutual and nonprofit sectors in providing welfare services, a means-tested guaranteed minimum income (known as the Rendimento Mínimo Garantido), and increased investment in education. During his time as prime minister, various reforms were carried out in areas such as education, housing, social welfare, healthcare, health and safety, sex discrimination, and family leave.
  
  He was then one of seven Social Democratic prime ministers in the European Union, joining political allies in Spain, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands.