During the final stretch of the 4th EU-CELAC Summit held today in Santa Marta, Colombia, Luís Montenegro was asked by journalists about the submission of over 2,000 proposed amendments to the State Budget for 2026 (OE2026), marking a new record, despite the government’s claim that there is almost no room for negotiation to maintain a surplus.
“The margin has not changed; the margin is exactly the same […]. The Parliament should now conduct its discussion, but it is not from the parliamentary discussion that more margin will materialize,” he warned.
The head of the government deferred to Parliament the responsibility of “managing with full respect” this margin, which according to the executive, allows for a budget surplus of 0.1% in the coming year.
“Unless the Parliament decides that the accounts will fall into imbalance or at least deficit next year. However, each must assume their responsibility, and I do not see in the opposition parties a willingness to take on that responsibility,” he stated.
Asked whether he would continue to govern if a budget with a predicted deficit were approved, he replied that he did not want to “speculate on that now”.
“What I want to say is that parties with responsibility, to approve proposals that might jeopardize the margin, will have to present a compensation. If they are not able to do so, then it will be the Parliament itself that ends up doing what it says it does not want to do, and I do not want to believe that this will happen,” he said.
Regarding the PS proposal, which foresees that a potential extraordinary supplement to be paid in 2026 to retirees be converted into a permanent increase, Montenegro admitted not knowing it in detail but said it did not seem to contain financial sustainability compensation.
“As far as I could understand, there is an evolution of this proposal towards conditioning a permanent change in the pension system by not implementing a change within the scope of IRC. The two things are not related, and therefore, I do not think this assumption will be verified,” he stated.
According to the information available on the Parliament’s website, parties submitted 2,176 proposed amendments to OE2026.
According to the same data, PSD/CDS-PP submitted 57 proposals, Chega 614, PS 117, Liberal Initiative 112, Livre 330, PCP 532, Bloco de Esquerda 182, PAN also 182, and JPP 50.
The government submitted OE2026 to the parliament on October 9, just before the deadline and three days ahead of the municipal elections.
In the macroeconomic scenario, the PSD/CDS-PP government forecasts that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by 2% this year and by 2.3% in 2026.
The executive aims to achieve surpluses of 0.3% of GDP this year and 0.1% next year. Regarding the debt ratio, it estimates a reduction to 90.2% of GDP in 2025 and 87.8% in 2026.
The proposal was approved in general on October 28, and the final overall vote is scheduled for November 27.
