Luís Montenegro welcomes the PS “sense of responsibility”
Portugal’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, has “democratically” welcomed the announcement by the leader of the Socialist Party (PS) that he is proposing that its members of parliament abstain in the vote on the 2025 state budget.
This proposal still has to be ‘thrashed out’ in the political commission on Monday – after which the party had previously said it would be announcing its voting intentions. But all commentators agree, it would be ‘political suicide’ now for any Socialist MPs to go against the leaders’ wishes.
Highlighting the “sense of responsibility” being shown by the country’s main opposition force, Mr Montenegro said shortly after Pedro Nuno Santos’ announcement in Lisbon: “From a democratic point of view (…) I welcome the sense of responsibility and the prevalence of the national interest that the PS is expressing by enabling this important instrument that can contribute to the implementation of the government’s programme.”
The PM was in Brussels last night, at the end of a 12-hour meeting of the European Council. Talking to Portuguese journalists, he reiterated the “very significant effort” that the government had made to “get closer to the PS’s essential concerns” in preparing the draft budget, stressing his coalition’s “humility” in recognising that it does not have a majority in parliament.
“I am hopeful about the PS’s decision to respect the will of the people and not contribute to adding uncertainty,” he added.
What all this means is that by allowing the State Budget to pass, Socialists have stepped back from precipitating another political crisis, and the government is on track for at least another year in office (even if PS Socialists vote against the next State Budget, President Marcelo at that point will be almost at the end of his mandate and unable, by dint of the Constitution, to dissolve parliament and call snap elections.
Source material: LUSA
