The position was taken by the Socialist parliamentary leader, Eurico Brilhante Dias, in Parliament, responding to accusations by the Chega leader, André Ventura, who claimed the Socialist Party (PS) is a “sell-out” party for announcing its intention to abstain from voting on the State Budget proposal for 2026, thus allowing its approval.
“Today is the day to say that the far-right party, which perhaps screams because it is losing some influence over this decision to facilitate and approve the State Budget, has sold out pensioners and younger people, especially younger students, in the negotiation it conducted with the Government,” he accused.
According to the socialist leader, the issue is the “reduction of corporate tax and not increasing pensions” and also “the reduction of personal income tax for everyone, but financing that reduction with the money young people had when they finished their courses.”
“These are two of the decisions where Chega sold out both the elderly, who are more vulnerable and have lower incomes, and particularly the younger people leaving universities,” he criticized.
For Brilhante Dias, “if there is a party that sold out its electorate” in the initial negotiations, it was Chega.
“The Socialist Party abstains, as is well known, for reasons of political stability, given the institutional framework we have, of carrying out the Recovery and Resilience Plan and, in particular, also because it defined clear rules which the Government complied with, excluding labor legislation, changes to the National Health Service, and Social Security,” he reiterated.
The socialist secretary-general, José Luís Carneiro, announced early this morning a “demanding abstention” on the State Budget for 2026 (OE2026) to “ensure political stability” of the country, despite criticizing the Government’s budget proposal.
The announcement was made after a meeting of the National Political Commission of the PS, which ended in the early hours, following a meeting on Tuesday with the PS parliamentary group regarding the party’s position on OE2026.
According to the PS leader, there was a “general show of support” in both bodies for the proposal he made for abstention, which he described as a “demanding abstention” on a budget “that is not the PS’s” and which he criticized in various ways.
