During his speech at the closing session of the general debate on the Government’s State Budget proposal for 2026, held in the Assembleia da República, Paulo Raimundo addressed the leader of the PSD/CDS executive, Luís Montenegro.
“We leave this debate certain that your budget and your policy need to be defeated. The further your propaganda and policy advance, the more remains to be recovered in the lives of those who work, who have worked all their lives, and the youth,” he stated.
Following this, the Secretary-General of the PCP issued a warning to Luís Montenegro, accusing him of refusing to see reality.
“But do not be fooled, your choice to transfer fundamental resources to a tiny minority for the improvement of the majority’s living conditions will sooner or later backfire,” he asserted.
Paulo Raimundo then argued that the budget options for the coming year are also those of Chega and Iniciativa Liberal—parties that, being assured of the Government’s proposal approval, “even afford to vote against.”
“They simulate this or that disagreement but only differ from the Government on the intensity and pace of injustice. Options made viable by the PS, which claims to disagree but agrees with and enables them. And enables them knowing that this Budget is not a piece of political stability but rather the stability of the ongoing policy,” he criticized.
Paulo Raimundo accused the Government of intending to advance a labor package harmful to workers and favorable to employers, dismantling the National Health Service, and weakening public schools while proceeding with “privatizations, assault on public resources, real estate speculation, injustice, and impoverishment.”
“It is that transformative agenda of growth for the few, justice for some, financial balance always guaranteed for those who consider themselves the owners of it all. The surplus agenda, which ignores that the month far exceeds wages and increasingly short pensions given the brutal rise in living costs. No one can say they are misled; what is coming is bad,” he warned.
In this context, the communist leader promised that on November 8, “in the national march against the labor package, workers, especially the younger ones, [will] assert their strength, their protest, and their rejection of this big patronage order.”
“The country cannot forgo two billion euros per year of public resources that the reduction of tax on profits to 17% will hand over to economic groups. What workers and the people need are existing resources to increase wages, enhance careers, respect workers, and set the national minimum wage at 1,050 euros starting January 1,” he opposed.
Paulo Raimundo advocated alternatives such as “returning the VAT on electricity, gas, and telecommunications to 6% and considering measures to regulate the brutal cost of food.”
“The country does not need the Budget to once again deliver 1,800 million euros in tax benefits to large companies. The country needs to significantly increase pensions by 5%, with a minimum of 75 euros per month. Because it is every month that retirees face their structural expenses on housing, food, and medication,” he added.
