(Bloomberg) — Portugal’s far-right Chega party, the third-biggest political force in parliament, plans to vote against the 2025 budget plan proposed by the country’s minority government.
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“It’s not our budget, we don’t see ourselves in it,” Chega leader Andre Ventura said in a televised press conference. “Chega will vote against the 2025 budget.”
The budget, which is scheduled to be submitted to an initial vote in parliament at the end of October, is a major test for Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s minority administration, which took office in April after his center-right AD coalition’s narrow election win over the Socialists.
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With Chega’s decision to reject the plan, Montenegro will need the Socialists to abstain or vote in favor for the budget to be approved. Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos said earlier this month that his party still has to assess the budget before deciding how it will vote.
Both the prime minister and the Socialist leader have said they don’t want early elections. Portugal has held two snap elections in three years, in January 2022 and March of this year.
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