“I believe that Miranda Sarmento is attempting to depoliticize the budget, as if it could be entirely technical, and as if that were a good thing,” criticized Rui Tavares during a campaign action in Lisbon, covering the districts of Areeiro, Alvalade, and Avenidas Novas, where the head candidates for these areas are members of the Livre party.
The party leader spoke to journalists after Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento acknowledged today that 2026 will be a “more demanding budgetary year,” pointing out that “if the country does not want to return to a deficit, the margin” for additional measures in the budget proposal, submitted today, “is close to zero.”
Rui Tavares recalled that some of the party’s “greatest achievements” resulted from measures approved during the budget discussion, citing the Passe Ferroviário Verde as an example.
“Depoliticizing the budget, aiming to make it a purely technical document, essentially removes the ambition from the budget itself,” he remarked.
In the State Budget proposal for 2026 (OE2026) submitted to parliament today, the government estimates a budget surplus of 0.1% of GDP for the next year, while various entities monitoring public finances estimate a deficit.
