Luís Montenegro announced during a PSD campaign event in Évora an upcoming proposal for the State Budget for 2026, to be presented by the PSD/CDS-PP government on Friday, two days before the local elections on Sunday.
With the announced increase of 40 euros, the reference value of the CSI, which is intended for low-income elderly individuals, will rise to around 670 euros per month.
When questioned about potential accusations of electoralism, the PSD leader and prime minister responded: “I fear nothing, my responsibility is to share our vision for the country, to share the strategic sense that, in the case of the PSD, we give in the various forms of intervention we have.”
Later, in Almada, Setúbal district, the PS secretary-general accused the prime minister of “blatant lack of exemption, impartiality, and independence” for announcing an increase in the CSI during the election campaign period.
José Luís Carneiro, speaking at the end of a visit to Garcia de Orta Hospital, promised to present a report on the execution rate of the action plans submitted by the government after Sunday’s local elections.
Before the prime minister’s announcement, IL leader Mariana Leitão also visited a health unit in Aveiro, challenging Minister Ana Paula Martins to reflect on her work and her conditions to continue, following “plans and more plans” for the sector that, she claimed, “have not materialized and resolved absolutely nothing.”
In Nazaré, Leiria district, Chega’s president André Ventura advocated for a “permanent and structural” pension increase that “does not reduce to supplements” and referred the issue to the budget debate, accusing the government of “populism and electoral localism.”
Rui Tavares, Livre’s spokesperson, during a campaign event in Barcelos, Braga district, commented on the announcement made by the PSD leader and prime minister, stating that “everyone already knows Luís Montenegro’s tricks,” but he hoped “the CSI reaches more people.”
Questioned in Braga on this matter, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered that “on the eve of the Budget delivery, one must talk about the Budget” and added that “it is understandable for each party to express their future expectations, but they should avoid electioneering in that regard.”
PCP secretary-general Paulo Raimundo focused his discourse on the local level, targeting the PS, first in Loures, where he called for a “great victory” for the CDU, and later in Lisbon, accusing socialists of being complicit in the “right-wing policy” of Carlos Moedas from the PSD.
On the eighth day of the official campaign for Sunday’s local elections, Paulo Raimundo mentioned that he does not intend to slip on the “banana peel” of commenting on isolated State Budget measures and challenged the prime minister to reveal the “negative things” included in the government’s proposal.
In Madeira, CDS-PP president and Defense Minister Nuno Melo stated he did not feel “at all corrected” by the balanced position advocated by the prime minister concerning Portuguese citizens on a flotilla heading for Gaza, including BE coordinator Mariana Mortágua, detained by Israel.
Nuno Melo added that the CDS-PP “is fully in solidarity with the coalition” government, yet it is also “a party that stands on its own.” Former party president Paulo Portas joined the campaign in Vale de Cambra, a municipality managed by the CDS-PP, where he urged voting for “good managers,” and later in Lisbon with Carlos Moedas.
In Faro, PAN spokesperson Inês Sousa Real campaigned with Cristóvão Norte, candidate of the PSD/IL/CDS/PAN/MPT coalition, visiting the Aboim Ascensão Refuge today, where she emphasized the importance of enhancing protection for children and victims of domestic violence.
