Portuguese government won’t close budget without knowing Socialist proposals

Portugal's Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Pedro Duarte, reiterated on Tuesday that the government would not close the budget without knowing the proposals from the PS party, insisting that it had the "goodwill" to accept them.

"We're not going to close the budget without knowing what the PS proposals are because there's goodwill on our part to be able to accept them," Pedro Duarte told reporters on the sidelines of the Transatlantic Business Summit at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

Asked about the state of play on the 2025 budget, the minister said the government was "following the plan" and was "in the final stages of finalising the proposal" to be presented to parliament on 10 October.

"It's not a done deal because we're still in contact with the parties," stressed Duarte, pointing out that they had not yet heard any PS proposals.

The minister also said that the executive was interested "in a consensus around the budget, that it be made viable and the largest opposition party, the PS, has added responsibility".

Duarte replied that "it shouldn't be up to the government to make that choice" regarding the possibility of a viable budget without the PS.

The minister also said that he didn't think the atmosphere was "tense": "We have to have a sense of responsibility and of the state; this isn't about the moods of a party leader; it's about the future of the country and people's lives."

The secretary general of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PSS) said on Tuesday that he expected the government to accept the proposals he will present at Friday's meeting with the prime minister on the state budget for 2025.

“There will only be no budget if the government doesn't want it, if the government doesn't realise that it has to give in to the PS, and if it doesn't have an absolute majority. The issue doesn't have to do with us or our programme, more than that. It's about getting some negative measures out of the budget and some proposals into the budget,” he argued.

This is because the PS is committed to the Portuguese and what it believes is "best for Portugal". In this sense, he said, it is not "staying out of negotiations or dialogue with the government", but neither is it "voting with its eyes closed".

On Friday, Nuno Santos said the PS would present the party's proposals in the hope that the government will accept them, "not only because it will improve the responses to the Portuguese, but because it can guarantee the viability of the State Budget".

“What you can't do is expect the PS to give up defending what it thinks is good for the Portuguese people. That will never happen. The PS is committed to the Portuguese people, and we take our commitment very seriously,” he stressed.

This is because there are measures proposed by the government that are "very expensive and unfair", and for this reason, he believes that "instead of spending billions of euros on these measures, this money should be invested in improving the living conditions of the Portuguese".

“Whether in health, education, pensions for our pensioners or housing,” he added.

Nuno Santos also said that he hoped the climate between the two largest parties would change by Friday, as he considered the government's statements to be a “childish provocation to the PS”.

(Mariana Espirito Santos, Isabel Marques Nogueira | Lusa.pt)