Lisbon, Feb. 26, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister, Luís Montenegro, has said that the implementation of government support measures after the recent storms will not jeopardise the balance of public accounts, but without ruling out "negative budget balances", i.e. deficits.
At the end of the meetings with all the parties with seats in parliament, at the prime minister's official residence in São Bento, in Lisbon, on Wednesday, on storm support measures, the so-called Portugal Transformation, Recovery and Resilience programme (the PTRR), Luís Montenegro made a statement without taking questions, in which he again addressed - without setting figures - how to finance this programme.
"We will have national funding for this programme - which will come from the state budget - funding that may come from contracting public debt. It will not jeopardise the trajectory of balanced public accounts, but that does not mean that there cannot be negative budget balances, negative public debt ratios," he said.
He added: "I'm not saying that there will be, but I'm not ruling out that possibility."
Montenegro thanked all the parties with seats in parliament with whom he met on Wednesday for their "effort to reach agreement" and acknowledged "the positive and constructive contribution they made to the discussion that will culminate in the final version of the PTRR," which is expected to be approved in early April.
"This does not mean adherence to the Government's policies, it does not mean that the Government's priorities and the Government's programme naturally coincide with those of the political parties, but I think that democracy will send a strong signal of vitality if we have the capacity, in exceptional situations, for the parties to reach a convergence of positions on strategic objectives," he said.
The prime minister, flanked by the Cabinet office minister, minister of the economy and minister of parliamentary affairs - who attended the meetings that began at 10:00 and ended after 19:00 - has now promised to "continue analysing all the contributions".
"We will hold the necessary meetings in the future, the Government's door is open, it is open right away in parliament," he assured.
Montenegro recalled that, as planned, the Government began institutional dialogue with the acting president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the President-elect, António José Seguro.
"It will now also have the opportunity to launch the debate with organisations representing local authorities, social partners, regional governments and academia. At the same time, today (Wednesday), a platform for interaction with the Government is available, accessible to all citizens who also want to contribute their ideas," he said.
The prime minister welcomed the fact that all parties have agreed that the PTRR will go beyond short-term recovery and also cover the pillars of resilience and transformation.
Regarding the financing of the programme at European level, the prime minister said that "immediate support will be available", namely through the European Union Solidarity Fund, but warned that it will only amount to "a few dozen millions of Euros".
In addition to opening new lines of financing with the European Investment Bank, the prime minister said that the Government is also working with the European Commission "on a reprogramming of the PRR" (the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan for post-pandemic economic recovery).
The aim, he explained, is to "release some financial resources from projects that, due to the storms, will not be able to be implemented" in time for the end of this programme, which ends in 2026.
"Since it is physically impossible to complete the work on time, the money allocated to these projects will be made available and we will mobilise it for short-term measures for this year, 2026, in order to finance all the aid that is already being implemented today and that will continue to be promoted in the near future and possibly reinforced in accordance with some decisions we have in mind in the Government," he said.
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