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Portugal: Parliament rejects draft budget – Risk of early elections

Its parliament Portugal today rejected his plan budget for 2022 of the Socialist minority government, as the radical left supported the conservative opposition, in a development which is likely to lead to early elections the next months.

MEPs voted 117-108 with 5 abstentions, rejecting the draft budget, which provided for tax cuts for the middle class and increased public investment in order to boost the recovery after the pandemic, but also to reduce the deficit to 3.2 % of GDP from 4.3% in 2021.

Former left-wing allies of Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, the Communists and the Left Bloc, have called for more benefits and protections for workers, improvements in the social security system and more investment in the health system, according to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency. demands that Costa ignored as he was too focused on reducing the deficit.

Costa replied that he could not accept the possibility of international credibility being damaged in a country with one of the highest public debt burdens in Europe.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Souza warned on Monday that without a budget that relies heavily on EU funds for pandemic recovery, he would have no choice but to dissolve parliament and call early elections two years earlier. than provided.

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