The socialist general secretary, José Luís Carneiro, announced a “demanding abstention” in the State Budget for 2026 (OE2026) to “ensure the political stability” of the country, despite criticizing the Government’s budget proposal.
The announcement was made after a meeting of the PS National Political Commission, which ended in the early hours of this Wednesday (October 15), and which took place after a meeting, on Tuesday, with the PS parliamentary group about the party’s position in relation to OE2026.
According to the PS leader, in these two bodies there was a “general expression of support” for the proposal he made for abstention, which he described as a “demanding abstention” for a budget “that does not belong to the PS” and to which he left several criticisms.
“The document delivered by the Government to the Assembly of the Republic satisfies these basic conditions placed by the Socialist Party to the Prime Minister. Once these demands are met, the PS must honor the word given to the Portuguese, not constituting itself as a factor of political instability”, he explained.
This contribution to stability, from Carneiro’s perspective, allows “the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan to be completed next year”.
“Without giving any pretext for any apology from the AD Government. It will not apologize for the Socialist Party’s choices”, he defended.
This “demanding abstention”, according to Carneiro, “is the expression of a firm opposition, but also constructive and responsible”.
“We assume without hesitation that this is not the PS budget. With the PS Government, this would be a substantially different budget in terms of measures and objectives. This is a budget that does not respond to our economic policy options, does not respond to our social policy options, does not respond to our vision of the country’s development, nor to our strategic options in the different sectors of activity”, he criticized.
According to the PS secretary general, this is “a budget empty of ambition and content” and “without a strategy to improve the economy and family lives”.
“It is a budget that, despite continuing to degrade public accounts, is empty of decisive measures to support families and companies. With this budget, the Government confesses that it failed in its words regarding economic policy”, he accused.
Asked whether the abstention only applies to the general population or whether it will be the PS’s position in the final global vote, the PS leader said that “it now depends on what will happen in the specialty”, refusing that the document could be distorted with the introduction of the red lines that the socialists had refused.
“The general principle is that we contribute to stability, which means that abstention is for the entire budget, but it is clear that it will also depend a lot on the way the Government looks at the parties, in this case the Socialist Party, in the context of dialogue on the subject”, he said, ensuring that his vote will not depend on the Government “accepting or not” the PS’s proposals.
Despite the “guarantee of stability” that he wanted to leave to the Portuguese, Carneiro made it clear that the PS does not identify with this budget and anticipated areas in which it should present measures, such as the guarantee that the lowest pensions will not be reduced, and “minimize the increase in the cost of living, particularly in the acquisition of essential food products, as well as housing costs”.
The increase in support mechanisms for former combatants, the introduction of a reduced exemption rate in the IRS for the provision of complementary services by firefighters, the strengthening of business competitiveness and the stimulation of economic growth or the reduction of companies’ context costs are other aspects that the PS wants to see improved, as well as the review of the Local Finance Law.