Lisbon, June 2, 2026 (Lusa) - Parliament approved on Tuesday the government’s request to hold an urgent debate on the legislative authorisation for the creation of the Single Social Benefit, which provides for a detailed debate lasting a maximum of ten days.

The request for urgent procedure made by the government, voted on one day after it submitted a request for legislative authorisation to parliament so that it may legislate by decree-law on the creation of the Single Social Benefit, was approved with votes in favour from the Social Democrat Party (PSD), People's Party (CDS-PP) and Iniciativa Liberal.

The government is requesting the urgent scheduling of the request for legislative authorisation and its discussion in committee within a maximum of ten days.

Initially, according to a letter delivered on Monday, the government had requested scheduling of this proposal without setting any deadlines; the deadline was clarified today in a second document.

The scheduling of this request for legislative authorisation will take place this Wednesday at a meeting of parliamentary leaders.

The review of non-contributory social benefits, creating a Single Social Benefit that will consolidate 13 forms of support the cabinet approved on Friday.

On Monday, a request for legislative authorisation was submitted to parliament to enable the Government to legislate by decree-law to create the Single Social Benefit. The decree in question is attached to the government's request.

It justified the urgency of the debate with “the commitments made under the RRP”, emphasising that failure to implement this reform would mean the European Commission would not disburse around €620 million.

Before the vote, the sole BE MP, Fabian Figueiredo, asked the speaker of parliament to clarify that the three stages of the vote on the government’s proposal (general, specific and final) would not take place on the same day, as the executive’s letter still referred to this grouping.

The PSD’s parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, intervened to point out that the government had initially submitted a request to combine the three voting stages, but had since replaced it.

“This means that the government wants the general debate to be scheduled for tomorrow [at the leaders’ conference], the detailed debate in 10 days’ time, and then the final overall vote,” he said.

However, the Left Bloc member insisted on clarifying the matter, as the second letter submitted by the government continued to refer to the “combining of the three votes in the same plenary session”, emphasising that this was a “delicate process” requiring “legal certainty”.

The PS parliamentary leader, Eurico Brilhante Dias, intervened to state that his party’s understanding was that the government had requested urgency in scheduling this proposal, which would be done at a leaders’ conference, a maximum of 10 days for detailed debate and a subsequent final overall vote, asking the government to clarify whether this was the correct understanding.

The minister for parliamentary affairs, Carlos Abreu Amorim, confirmed that this was indeed the government’s intention.

TS/ADB // ADB.

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