Ukraine is heading into 2027 with a rising fiscal gap. Growth forecasts have been cut, inflation is rising, and the need for external financing seems to just keep going up. The economy is being squeezed by a labor market drained by mobilization and emigration, energy infrastructure has been decimated, and

Portugal’s Socialist Party is bringing together its main leaders today to discuss the position to take in the vote on the State Budget for 2027 (OE2027).  The party’s secretary-general, José

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Disy leader Annita Demetriou lambasted the government on Wednesday, saying its proposed budget did not rise to the challenges of the day and contained “inelastic spending, horizontal rises and untargeted measures”.

Speaking at a press conference, Demetriou said the government’s fourth budget “lacks a development and reform vision” and was more about managing problems than planning for the future.

Today, problems that must be addressed are inflation and the high cost of living, compared to unemployment, public debt and economic instability in the past, she said.

Inflation and the high cost of living, she pointed out, will persist, despite positive economic indicators.

A positive growth rate, Demetriou explained, could not address the cost of housing and starting a family.

Through its budget, the government supported high earners rather than those on low incomes, Demetriou said.

Demetriou presented her party’s priorities, including the need for more investments in the digitisation of the state and the digital economy to increase productivity, the downsizing of the civil service, improved services for individuals and businesses, and pushing the cost of bureaucracy downwards.

She said more investments were needed in research and innovation, development projects and infrastructure, to improve the quality of life and reduce the cost of living.

“Instead of expediting major projects and infrastructure, we are cancelling them or they are being carried out slowly. Accelerating development projects would lead to an increase in jobs and incomes, would strengthen the competitiveness of the economy in the medium term,” Demetriou said.

Other projects left behind are addressing traffic congestion and local authority development works, she added.

Demetriou also spoke of the need for “a real pension reform” that would improve pensions while securing the viability of the social insurance fund.

Disy, she said, also encouraged investments to reduce the cost of energy for individuals and businesses, particularly with photovoltaics and energy storage systems.

Other Disy priorities include withdrawing old vehicles, expanding intercity bus routes, encouraging remote work, further tax relief, the implementation of the all-day schools, improvements to the childcare plan, better child, student, single-parent and disability benefits, and measures to address the housing crisis.

Demetriou also called for measures to support the farming sector which is still reeling from increased production costs, rationed irrigation water and the foot and mouth outbreak.

“We are not asking for a continuous increase in spending […] We are asking for the better distribution of spending,” Demetriou said.

She explained that Disy did not disagree with the essence of the budget, but with the prioritisation of spending.

University students, and those in other forms of higher education, will be protesting today in front of the government’s headquarters, at Campus XX1, against the proposal in the 2027 State

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Budget watchdog UTAO (full title: Technical Budget Support Unit) is querying the government’s forecasts for employment growth and prices in 2027, highlighting discrepancies with recent data. In its analysis of

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This morning in parliament has seen a ‘ding-dong’ exchange of words and views over the AD minority government’s draft proposal for the 2027 State Budget. Expresso’s headline, written overnight, says

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Portugal’s AD coalition government is set to table the draft State Budget bill for 2027 in Parliament this afternoon, two full days before the deadline. The information was provided in

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Portugal’s minority government has secured a clearer path to passing its next State Budget, after PS Socialists signalled they would allow the proposal through its first parliamentary vote — a

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