The proposals from Chega, PS and PCP to increase pensions were rejected again this Friday, after a debate in which the Government warned of the risk of the opposition placing Portugal “overcoming the red line” of the deficit.
After seeing their initiatives for a permanent increase in pensions failed on the first day of voting in the State Budget for 2026, Chega, PS and PCP chose to raise their amendment proposals for this morning’s plenary, to be discussed and voted on again.
After a debate marked by appeals from the three parties and warnings from the executive about the risks of approving these increases for pensioners, Thursday’s votes continued, with the lead of the three amendment proposals being confirmed.
Chega’s initiative, for a permanent increase in pensions by 1.5%, was rejected with votes against by the PSD, CDS and IL and abstentions by PS, PCP and Livre. In addition to Chega, BE, JPP and PAN voted in favor.
The socialist proposal, to convert a possible extraordinary pension supplement into a permanent increase, was opposed by PSD, CDS, Chega and IL, and favorable votes from the entire left, PAN and JPP. The communist proposal had votes against from PSD, CDS-PP, IL, abstention from Chega and PS and favorable votes from PCP, BE, Livre, PAN and JPP.
This vote also confirmed the approval of the PSD and CDS-PP proposal for the Government to once again pay an extraordinary supplement to lower pensions in 2026, depending on the evolution of public accounts.
During the discussion in plenary, the Secretary of State for Social Security, Susana Filipa Lima, reiterated that “any increase or proposal for an additional increase to the legal minimum” will compromise the budget balance and “will cause Portugal to once again surpass the red line and return to a deficit situation”.
“The truth is that the permanent increase in pensioners’ income predicted for 2026 is 940 million euros. I’ll repeat, it’s not 270, it’s not 200 million, it’s 940 million euros. This means that there will, indeed, be a permanent increase in pensioners’ income, naturally a greater increase for those who have lower pensions, which are, as we know, the majority of pensioners”, he also said.
Earlier, socialist Miguel Costa Matos intervened to ask the Government to explain how, with Social Security making a profit of 6,600 million euros, 260 million could not be mobilized for a permanent increase in pensions, appealing to the parties to make the PS initiative viable
“The calls are not a repetition of yesterday’s debate. They are an opportunity for us to reflect better and correct errors and interpretations. And this is what the PS proposes to this chamber, that the parties could explain why, if there is structural margin, we cannot make a permanent increase in pensions for people who have worked their entire lives?”, he asked.
Pedro Frazão, from Chega, left an “appeal to the heart of the Assembly of the Republic” to make it possible to increase pensions by 1.5%, arguing that his party’s initiative is “little for those who deserve it very much” a “fair, moral and deeply human step”.
PCP deputy Alfredo Maia questioned the Secretary of State for Social Security about whether she “sleeps with a clear conscience” with what he says is “blackmail by millions about parliament and what it represents in people’s lives”.
“For pensioners there are pennies, for large economic groups there are many, many millions. Madam Secretary of State, I have to ask you why you don’t put in the other pan of the scale the advantage, in terms of the quality of life for all these pensioners, that will result from the increase that the PCP proposes”, he asked.
Lusa