‘Unambitious’ and ‘Greedy’ Budget

Parliament begins debate on the proposal that has guaranteed general approval

The Assembly of the Republic begins this Monday to debate in plenary the Government’s State Budget proposal for 2026, which has guaranteed general approval, with the PS abstaining.

The debate starts at 3:00 pm, with an intervention by the Prime Minister, on an afternoon in which the discussion of the document is scheduled for 249 minutes, although the parties can bring forward or transfer part of the time to Tuesday.

The first round of requests for clarification, with an individual response, begins with the largest opposition party (Chega), followed by the remaining political forces, in descending order, with a maximum of five minutes.

The discussion continues on Tuesday, with plenary sessions scheduled for 10:00 and 15:00.

A new schedule is available for this day, lasting more than four hours for debate and 109 minutes for the closing phase, with interventions from all parties and the Government, followed by the vote.

The favorable vote of the benches that support the Government, PSD and CDS-PP, and the announced abstention of the PS guarantee the approval of the document at this stage, and it remains to be seen how the second largest parliamentary party, Chega, will vote.

On Sunday, the PCP promised a “firm fight” against the State Budget proposal for 2026, accusing PSD, CDS-PP, Chega, IL and PS of giving “nothing to do with the country”.

On the same day, BE announced that it will vote against the proposal and PAN that it will abstain, “as a sign of openness to dialogue”.

On Thursday, the Public Finance Council (CFP) raised doubts about the sustainability and achievement of the 0.1% surplus foreseen in OE2026, warning that this is supported by specific measures and extraordinary revenues.

In Brussels, the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, defended that the Government he leads “cannot be accused of a lack of credibility in financial matters” and highlighted that, on several occasions, it faced “pessimism and disbelief from national and international entities”, calling for the results achieved to be verified.

“All targets were not only achieved but exceeded (…) The credit we have to date is very high and I hope the Government does not lose it”, he said.

The Government’s OE2026 proposal left out more controversial matters, such as labor law or Social Security, discussed separately in parliament, a requirement of the PS to make the Budget viable at this stage.

After voting in general, the specialized assessment begins on Wednesday, at the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee (COFAP), with hearings of all ministers and also some institutions and bodies such as the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Council and the CFP.

The hearings end on November 7th, the day that also marks the end of the deadline for parties to present their proposals for changes to the document.

Then, from November 20th to 26th, there will be discussion in the plenary session in the morning and votes at COFAP in the afternoon, with the closing and final global vote scheduled for the 27th.

The Government predicts that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow 2% this year and 2.3% in 2026 and intends to achieve surpluses of 0.3% of GDP in 2025 and 0.1% in 2026. As for the debt ratio, it estimates a reduction to 90.2% of GDP in 2025 and 87.8% in 2026.