“Primary net expenditure is rising above the average target agreed by the Government in Brussels. The European Commission identified this deviation at the end of last month as the third largest in the eurozone. The return of the budget deficit in 2026 is deemed certain by the European Commission, the Public Finance Council, and the Bank of Portugal. The forecast for the budget balance this year varies from a positive 0.1% from the European Commission, neutral from the Public Finance Council, and negative 0.1% from the Bank of Portugal. We are on a knife-edge,” warned António Mendonça Mendes.
The former government official was speaking during the discussion of the XXV Constitutional Government program, which runs until Tuesday in parliament, when he noted that “the budgetary situation is in a downward phase” and issued several warnings to the executive led by Luís Montenegro.
The PS deputy stated that the country enters this legislature “with a tax burden higher than last year, with GDP contracting and macroeconomic variables indicating a reversal of the cycle.”
“With primary net expenditure above the adjusted limit with Brussels, with the deterioration of the primary structural balance and the budget balance in the red, the margin for using fiscal policy as a stabilizer of the economic cycle is very reduced, if not compromised,” he warned.
For António Mendonça Mendes, fulfilling the government’s presented program “seems a challenge.”
The socialist argued that “ignoring the signals that macroeconomic and budgetary variables indicate” and on top of these “adding the anticipation and increase in defense spending, the uncertainty arising from the ongoing trade war and geopolitical conflicts that have as an immediate consequence the rise in oil prices” and “acting as if nothing is happening,” could in the long term, “and not very long, result in economic and budgetary degradation with profound and negative consequences on social well-being.”
“The fulfillment of this government program in this context is more an act of faith than a rational choice. Not deciding is also a decision with political significance. Assuming this program is going against all the signals we have in front of us,” he critiqued.
In a request for clarification, PSD deputy Emídio Guerreiro began with irony, saying that the PS, after allegedly governing “with flying cows, now turns into the harbinger of doom.”
Highlighting that the socialists “have been mistaken in the past,” Emídio Guerreiro requested that this debate be held only at the end of 2025.
“Until then, you just intend to scare people for no reason,” he criticized.
Emídio Guerreiro noted that “there is a new PS on the way,” which will elect a new secretary-general, a position for which only José Luís Carneiro has applied.
The social-democrat noted that Carneiro has “a different style” from his predecessor, Pedro Nuno Santos, but warned that “being more moderate in form, more friendly, more polite is important, but does not solve the problem,” questioning the PS about its “degree of commitment to stability.”
During a period dedicated to interventions from various parties, Filipa Pinto, a deputy from Livre, warned that culture “is under attack” from the far-right and criticized the prime minister for “remaining silent” after assaults by a far-right group on an actor from the theater company A Barraca.
“It is not enough for culture to be included in the ‘tutti frutti’ ministry of Youth and Sports. This clearly shows that culture is not a priority for the Government,” she critiqued, referring to the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports, headed by Margarida Balseiro Lopes.
From the PCP, the party that presented a motion of rejection to the government program, deputy Alfredo Maia argued that the document is “a series of misdeeds.”
In a request for clarification, social-democrat Gonçalo Capitão accused the PCP of “ideological mustiness” and said he visited the PCP’s website and found an intervention entitled “PCP, the vanguard of the working class.”
“You may even be the vanguard, but you are so far ahead, so far ahead that the working class can no longer or does not want to follow you,” he retorted.
