“The narrative of this Budget was already written, but it didn’t have to be this way,” stated Mariana Mortágua during the closing session of the debate on the State Budget for 2026, which is set to be approved today in the final overall vote.
Mortágua argued that the PS “did not have to accept from the onset the blackmail of a minority Government that uses the threat of dissolving the Assembly of the Republic as a carte blanche to impose its policy. In a time where stable and obvious majorities do not seem likely, this democratic distortion is unbearable.”
Even with “the violent abstention of the PS,” Mortágua continued, the “story of the Budget was not ultimately written,” pointing to the possibility of increasing pensions, meal subsidies, improving the National Health Service (SNS), or having “the parties pressured by the shame of doubly cutting taxes for banks while the people struggle to pay their house loans and are ‘squeezed’ by bank fees and commissions.”
“But none of this happened: the minority Government’s budget was steered through the specialty by the hand of a silent majority that coordinated all efforts to ensure everything remained the same. It was all just a game of mirrors,” criticized the bloc member.
For Mariana Mortágua, the story of next year’s Budget will be “the story of three parties managing the power dynamics.”
“In the end, we can only vote against this Budget. Its content is bad for Portugal. The process and the way we got here is a farce,” she concluded.
