Prime Minister Luis Montenegro is hosting all parties with seats in parliament this Friday on the 2025 state budget, about three months before the deadline for submitting the document, whose approval is uncertain.
The meetings, announced on Tuesday, will take place at the Prime Minister’s official residence in São Bento and will begin at 10:00 with PAN, followed by Livre, PCP, BE, IL, Chega, PS and finally a joint meeting with the PSD and SDS-PP scheduled for 18:30.
The state budget for 2025 must be submitted to parliament by 10 October, and the 80 MPs supporting the minority executive power of the SDP/CDU-PP are not enough to approve it, requiring either an abstention by the PS (78 MPs) or a positive vote by the Czech bench (50 MPs).
During the State of the Nation debate on Wednesday, Social Democratic Party secretary general Pedro Nuno Santos warned that if the government wants to avoid early elections it must “seriously debate” the state budget, saying that if the Socialists make a positive assessment it makes it viable, but otherwise it fails.
Pedro Nuno Santos insisted that “it is practically impossible for the PS to make a budget viable, which is an exclusive translation of the government program” that does not enjoy the support of the Socialists.
On Monday, the PS National Political Commission tasked Pedro Nuno Santos with opening a dialogue with the government on the state budget, ensuring “good faith” in the negotiations and abandoning “red lines”.
Cegi President André Ventura said the country “needs a budget” but warned that the document must reflect “the changes that the Portuguese chose” in the last legislative elections and that the executive “must choose” which party to negotiate with.
“It is impossible to have a budget that would please Chege and PS,” he said.
BE has already announced that it will vote against, the PCP also foresees a rejection if the document retains the government’s programme matrix, Livret accused the government of wanting to convey the message that talking to the parties is “useless”, while IL said it was available to negotiate but would vote against if the proposal was “very close” to those presented by previous PS leaders.
Last week, at the National Council of the PSD, the leader of the Social Democrats and Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said that if the PS is playing games over the budget negotiations, then have the courage to overthrow the government.
“They want some of their proposals to be reflected in the budget proposals, yes, they have a partnership. If by chance all this is nothing more than a game, then have the courage to topple the government, because we will be here to be able to tell the Portuguese what is at stake,” he said.
Following the State of the Nation debate, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pedro Duarte called on the various political forces to show a sense of responsibility, saying his executive did not want to measure its strength with the opposition and that Portugal wanted stability, not early elections.
“What is coming from today is not the management or approval of the state budget, it is not the fall or survival of the government, but only the responsibility of each of us. Members of the government or party members may have their ambitions, but in politics no party or personal aspiration should be greater than the ambitions we have for the country,” he said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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