The Porto City Council executive approved this Tuesday, December 16th, with the votes against from the Chega councilor and the five PS councilors, the municipal budget for the year 2026, which is set at 491.3 million euros.
The president of the municipality, Pedro Duarte, contextualized, before discussing this point at this Tuesday’s executive meeting, that municipal budgets are designed in the middle of each year and that, therefore, part of the work done by the previous executive, led by the independent Rui Moreira, was used, with some of his electoral promises being introduced, such as the Porto Feliz 2.0 program.
For the PS, Manuel Pizarro praised the technical quality and speed of the document’s preparation, but pointed out a “gap” between the document’s introductory note made by Pedro Duarte – which announces a new “era of transformation – and what is actually included in the budget.
The opposition councilor exemplified his criticism with the Porto Feliz 2.0 program, in which “strictly everything” planned for 2026 is “a continuation of what is already underway”, such as the Joaquim Urbano Temporary Reception Center, a supervised consumption room at Pasteleira and the three solidarity restaurants.
In the same line of thought, Chega’s sole councilor, Miguel Corte-Real, criticized the idea of talking about a “new political cycle” and an “era of transformation”.
In his opinion, the budget for 2026 is one of continuity and does not bring “anything transformative”.