The State Budget proposal for 2027 was approved in general this Wednesday, in the Assembly of the Republic. At the close of the debate, the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, argued that the document follows a "correct, but narrow path", based on improving incomes, supporting families, and investing, while simultaneously preserving the stability of public finances.
“We did not create a budget to make noise. We created a budget to make progress,” stated António Leitão Amaro, emphasizing that responses to present difficulties must not compromise the future of coming generations. The Minister framed the budget within a context marked by structural problems, such as housing, education, and immigration, and by new external challenges, from war to storms, arguing that Portugal has managed to distinguish itself in an unstable international scenario through economic growth, employment, rising incomes, and a reduction in public debt.
António Leitão Amaro identified seven hallmarks of this path: valuing work, effort, and merit; supporting the most vulnerable; retaining young people and protecting the elderly; reinforcing housing supply; incentivizing companies that invest and take risks; recovering public services, combining public, private, and social responses; and ensuring security in public finances, streets, and borders. Among the highlighted measures are a new reduction in IRS (Personal Income Tax), valorization of pensions and the minimum wage, reinforcement of social support, housing access and supply increase measures, reduction of the tax burden on companies, and investment in public services and security forces.
Regarding housing, the Minister stated that the Government is implementing “the largest housing program in decades”, combining support for purchase and rental with construction incentives and measures aimed at bringing currently empty houses onto the market. The objective, he maintained, is to reconcile the improvement of incomes and living conditions with the sustainability of public finances, in a strategy that seeks to “mobilize all possible solutions and resources in the present” without doing so at the expense of the future.
António Leitão Amaro recalled that the projected surplus is less than 300 million euros and warned that this margin is necessary to respond to potential external shocks. He argued that during the detailed discussion phase, a rule should be applied: whoever proposes more spending must identify which spending they intend to eliminate, and whoever advocates for a revenue reduction must explain what will no longer be done or which taxes will have to increase. “Politics cannot be just the art of winning applause. It must also be the capacity to discern what is necessary, to explain what is difficult, and to assume the consequences of the decisions taken,” he stated.
The Minister associated immobility with the postponement of reforms and decisions, adventurism with proposals for increased spending and tax cuts without guaranteed sustainability, and subversion with behaviors that undermine the rule of law and representative democracy. Regarding housing protests, he distinguished between peaceful demonstrations and episodes of violence, assuring the former: “we hear, we understand, and we act.” The appeal to deputies was thus for amendments to the budget not to steer the country away from the balance defended by the Government. “What the Portuguese ask of us is not complaints, but solutions,” he said.
In conclusion, António Leitão Amaro reiterated the central idea of his speech: “This budget is that choice. It returns income to the people. It rewards merit and work. It supports the most vulnerable. And it ensures stability and prosperity.”
