After the debate and vote on OE 2025, in a short statement to journalists, Luís Montenegro left a warning to PS and Chega because, he said, the document includes “important proposals” from the two largest opposition parties.
The Prime Minister defended that the State Budget for 2025 approved today in a final global vote is a Government document, but also holds PS and Chega co-responsible for integrating “important proposals” from the two largest opposition parties.
“This is a Government Budget, it is a Budget of the two parties that support it in the Assembly of the Republic, but it is a Budget that is co-responsible for the Socialist Party and Chega – the largest opposition party and the second largest opposition party – , because several of the decisions that were taken were taken with the support of these parties, even those that were taken against the Government’s will”, said Luís Montenegro.
The proposed State Budget law for 2025 was approved today in the final global vote with votes in favor of the two parties that support the Government, PSD and CDS-PP, and the PS abstaining.
The other opposition parties – Chega, IL, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN – voted against.
“This stage has been overcome, I believe that the conditions have been created for us to use the State Budget as it should be used, as an instrument at the service of public policies, at the service of citizens, at the service of companies, at the service of social justice and at the service of economic growth”, Montenegro began by saying.
The Prime Minister considered that this approval took place “in a difficult parliamentary context” – in which PSD and CDS-PP have a total of 80 deputies, against 78 for the PS -, but highlighted “a strong commitment of the main parliamentary political forces to the State Budget”.
“I want to remind you that this Budget, in addition to comprising all revenue elements to be able to cover Public Administration expenses (…) is also a Budget that contemplates the abolition of some tolls, it contemplates the expansion of the application of VAT reduction in electricity consumption, contemplates the fall of the IRS – in accordance not with the vision that the Government had programmed but with the vision that the two main opposition parties decided on -, contemplates an extraordinary permanent increase in pensions”, he said, referring to several PS proposals approved with PSD and CDS-PP votes against.
Therefore, he considered, “from a political point of view” It is a document that “gives hope to the country because it covers the essence of the Government’s proposal, the Government’s program, but also covers many of the most important proposals from the main opposition parties”without answering questions from journalists.
Montenegro’s 1st Budget
This was the first State Budget presented by the XXIV Constitutional Government, led by Luís Montenegro, and its approval in the final global vote received a standing ovation in parliament from the PSD and CDS-PP benches, while the prime minister gave a hug to the his Minister of Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento.
At the same moment, Chega’s deputies stood up to show posters that read “this parliament has lost its shame”.
During the period of debate and voting on the State Budget for 2025, which began on November 22, measures were approved such as the extraordinary and permanent increase in pensions by 1.25% – proposed by the PS against the Government’s wishes -, the reduction of the IRC by 1 percentage point and the end of the 5% cut in politicians’ salaries.
In total, in the sum of four days of voting in the specialty, 243 amendment proposals were approved, in this State Budget which was marked by a record number of proposals delivered, exceeding 2,100.
