Portugal's 2027 Budget Debate Begins Today With the First Vote on Wednesday and the Final One on 24 November: The Timetable and Where the Parties Stand

Parliament begins the general debate (debate na generalidade) on the Government's 2027 State Budget at 15:00 today, Tuesday 27 October, with a speech by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro. The first vote comes at the end of the debate on Wednesday 28 October, and the bill's passage at this stage is already assured: PSD and CDS-PP will vote for it and the Socialists have said they will abstain, as we reported on 20 October.

The timetable, step by step

The dates come from Parliament's official calendar for the bill, Proposta de Lei 110/XVII; ECO and Lusa, via Notícias ao Minuto, report how the first two days are split.

• Today: about four hours of debate (249 minutes), opening with the Prime Minister. Chega, as the largest opposition party, asks the first questions, followed by the other parties in order of size.
• Wednesday 28 October: sittings at 10:00 and 15:00, with about four more hours of debate and 109 minutes of closing speeches from every party and the Government, followed by the vote.
• 29 October to 6 November: the detailed stage (especialidade) begins. Parties can table amendments from 09:00 on 29 October; the Budget Committee hears ministers one by one. The Infrastructure and Housing Minister appears on 2 November, the national associations of municipalities (ANMP) and parishes (ANAFRE) on 4 November, and the Finance Minister on 6 November, which is also the amendment deadline.
• From mid-November: plenary debate and committee votes on the detail, line by line.
• Tuesday 24 November: closing debate and the final global vote. The final text must be ready by 9 December.

Where the parties stand

PCP and BE have confirmed they will vote against, Lusa reports. Chega and IL have not formally announced their vote but have signalled that they are likely to vote against. Livre, PAN and JPP have not said. Last year PAN and JPP abstained at the first vote and then voted against the final version.

For the PS, António Mendonça Mendes told the Finance Minister at Friday's committee hearing that the budget would leave Parliament "with exactly the same balance with which it came in", as far as the PS is concerned, and that support for families facing the cost of living would be added "by initiative of the PS", ECO reports. He accused the Government of leaving the budget "empty of measures to support families". The Finance Minister, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, answered that not distorting the budget mattered as much as letting it pass, while accepting that the PS "will do what it wants" at the detailed stage provided the balance holds. He has also defended keeping individual policy measures out of the budget bill itself and tabling them as separate bills, so that each can be voted on its own.

Housing is expected to dominate the debate after police cleared the protest camps in Lisbon and Porto on Sunday. A protest is called outside the Assembleia da República for 18:30 today.

What it means for you

Nothing in the budget takes effect until after the final vote on 24 November, and every measure can still be amended until then. The items most likely to come up in the amendment stage are the ones we have already covered:

• The higher IRS tax-free floor, brackets moved up 3.88 percent and the end of the university fee freeze (what the bill changes for households).
• The fall in structural housing investment as recovery plan money runs out (our report from 26 October).
• Local services: parish councils have threatened to close on 4 November, the day ANAFRE is heard (background).