Portuguese parliament approves 2024 state budget

11 months ago 37

The government’s draft bill for the 2024 state budget (OE2024) was approved in a final global vote in parliament on Wednesday, with the Socialist Party voting in favour and the Livre and PAN MPs abstaining. The document was voted against by the PSD (Social Democratic Party), the right-wing populist Chega Party, the Liberal Initiative Party, the Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (BE).

This vote came at a time when early parliamentary elections had been announced for 10 March, following the resignation of Prime Minister António Costa on 7 November.

The country’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, confirmed that he will formalise the government’s resignation “in the first days of December”, which is done by decree, having postponed this act to allow for the final approval of the 2024 state budget bill and its entry into force. Only then will the executive be limited to management acts (i.e. a caretaker government).

Finance Minister Fernando Medina finished his closing speech in the debate on the budget proposal and was strongly applauded by the Socialist benches.

As has happened in other budget votes, when the sole People-Animals-Nature (PAN) and Livre MPs, Inês Sousa Real and Rui Tavares, stood up to signal their abstention, there was an ironic buzz from the benches to the right of the chamber.

When the approval of the document was announced, the prime minister greeted with satisfaction some of the government officials sitting next to him, such as the deputy minister for parliamentary affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, the Cabinet Office Minister, Mariana Vieira da Silva, and the minister of finance, who also greeted each other.

With the proposal approved and even before the speaker of parliament, Augusto Santos Silva, specifically announced the voting behaviour, the Socialist Party’s parliamentary bench had already stood up and started applauding, which lasted about a minute. At the same time, some Chega MPs waved goodbye to the Socialists.

(Ana Raquel Lopes, edited by Cristina Cardoso | Lusa.pt)