Lisbon, June 16, 2025 (Lusa) - The new Portuguese Government’s programme will be debated on Tuesday and Wednesday in parliament and includes measures already included in the Democratic Alliance coalition's electoral programme, such as tax cuts and increases in wages and pensions, but also new commitments.

Among the main new features are state reform, which has been given its own ministry in the 25th PSD/CDS-PP (the Democratic Alliance coalition) government, the intention to change labour legislation, including the law on strikes, to review the Basic Health Law and to bring forward the commitment to invest 2% of GDP in defence this year.

Greater control of immigration is another of the main lines of the programme of the second executive headed by Luís Montenegro, which includes a new chapter in relation to the document presented before the campaign: a Transformative Agenda, which sets out the ten priority areas for government action.

According to the executive, these priorities are: “an income policy that values work”; “a profound reform of the State and a declared war on bureaucracy”; “the creation of wealth based on economic growth”; “a regulated and humanistic immigration policy”; “essential services accessible to all, with quality and complementarity between the public, private and social sectors”; “a police force that is closer to the public"; "swifter justice and a firm fight against corruption"; "a determined response to the housing crisis with national mobilisation"; "the launch of new infrastructure"; the implementation of the "Water that Unites" project and a plan to strategically strengthen investment in defence.

Below are some of the main commitments expressed in the Government’s programme, broken down by area:

*** State reform ***

The Government wants a “net reduction” in direct State administration entities, which will involve a reorganisation including the abolition of sectoral general secretariats, duplicate structures and the merger of entities.

On the other hand, it will move forward with a comprehensive assessment of State employees to anticipate needs and identify redundancy, with the aim of promoting the redistribution of civil servants.

Cabinet office minister António Leitão Amaro has already given assurances that State reform will not involve layoffs of public workers or salary cuts.

In the programme, the Government also undertakes to “complete the review of public administration careers” and to move towards a simple evaluation system, “with greater weight given to performance as a criterion for progression as opposed to seniority”.

The “governance regime of the state business sector will also be reviewed, strengthening its transparency and qualification, and disposing of non-strategic holdings” and a “process of gradual relocation of various central services of the central state administration to other regions of the national territory outside the capital” will be launched.

Among the measures planned in the state reform is also “a comprehensive review of public spending” in the main ministries, which involves sharing the savings generated with entities, services and workers.

*** Labour ***

The Government has set itself the objective of “better balancing” the right to strike “with the satisfaction of essential social needs” and of revising labour legislation, “preferably in the context of statutory tripartite talks between the government, employers and unions”.

It also intends to review the system for granting and monitoring social integration income (RSI) – which may be made conditional on “solidarity obligations” – and to create a work incentive benefit.

The aim of this benefit, which would replace “a wide range of social support”, is to allow “the accumulation of income from work with social support”, with a view to encouraging “active participation in the labour market”.

The Government also intends to give greater flexibility in the taking of holidays at the initiative of the worker, with the possibility of acquiring holiday days, with a limit to be defined contractually between the parties, and that workers will again be able to choose whether they want to receive holiday and Christmas bonuses included in their normal 12 monthly salaries or in the traditional way, where the bonuses are paid in two extra monthly salaries.

The executive also wants to reinforce the possibility of transition, “even if temporary”, between weekly working time arrangements, “with a possible percentage adjustment of remuneration”, and the possibility of remote working by agreement between the parties.

The Government is also considering creating shared parental leave with an alternative carer to the parents, especially for single-parent families.

*** Immigration ***

The executive wants to review the nationality law and extend the deadlines for obtaining Portuguese citizenship, extending the minimum period of residence and effective presence in the country (currently five years) and eliminating the possibility of illegal stay being considered for the purposes of counting.

In the programme, the executive undertakes to review the law on foreigners and the asylum law, “limiting migratory flows, particularly family reunification, to the capacity of public services and the integration of Portuguese society”.

It also intends to restrict job-seeking visas to highly qualified candidates and consider introducing Portuguese language proficiency criteria for the renewal of certain types of residence permits.

The government also wants to “review the process of issuing residence certificates by parish councils” and “create and implement the Bom Regresso (Good Return) Programme” to support all those who wish to return to their country of origin and are unable to do so by their own means, as well as to move forward with the creation of a National Foreigners and Borders Unit of the PSP (Public Security Police), which was rejected in the previous legislature.

*** Salaries and pensions ***

The Government has set a target for the minimum wage (currently €870) to rise to €1,100 in 2029, with the average wage at around €2,000 at the end of the legislative term and no pensioner having an income below €870 at that time, which will involve continuing to increase pensions and increases in the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly.

*** Taxes ***

The government plans to reduce personal income tax up to the 8th bracket, at a cost of €2 billion by 2029, with a reduction of €500 million already in 2025 (in addition to what was planned in the state budget for 2025).

For corporate income tax (IRC), the programme provides for a gradual reduction to 17% by the end of the legislative term, with a reduction to 15% for small and medium-sized enterprises on the first €50,000 of taxable profit.

The continuity of measures aimed at encouraging young people to stay in the country is guaranteed, such as “structurally and permanently reducing the IRS Jovem (young people’s income tax)” and maintaining the exemption from IMT (property transfer tax), stamp duty and public guarantees on the purchase of a first home for those under 35.

In this government programme, the estimates for the budgetary scenario have not been updated, but the executive reiterates, in the chapter on finance, that “budgetary balance and the reduction of public debt are a fundamental condition for sustainable economic and social development”.

*** Health ***

The Government wants to review the Basic Health Law - in force since 2019 - and approve a new Law on Resources for the National Health Service (SNS), arguing that these legislative changes are essential to ensure the sustainability of the Portuguese health system.

The executive will also create regional emergency departments made up of teams shared between hospitals, giving priority to the “most critical specialities” in terms of human resources, such as obstetrics and paediatrics.

Also in the area of hospital care, a new National System for Access to Consultations and Surgeries (SINACC) is planned, which will also include timely access to complementary diagnostic means, replacing the current Integrated Management System for Surgery Registrants (SIGIC).

Another measure provided for in the Government Programme is the restructuring of the “management of the SNS, through its reorganisation based on Local Health Systems with the participation of public, private and social entities”.

During this new term of office, the Government also intends to launch new public-private partnerships (PPPs) for health units that “meet criteria to ensure a better response to care” in a model of private management of public services in the SNS.

*** Education ***

The Government intends to ban smartphones in primary and lower secondary schools (i.e. in years 1-7) and limit their use among upper secondary school students, making the recommendations made at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year the rule.

Creating a study support service for disadvantaged or at-risk pupils and building, in dialogue with head teachers and teachers, “a new model of school autonomy and management” are other objectives in a programme that also includes a commitment to “review and update the models of association contracts”.

The philosophy, both in health and education, is to “move towards a paradigm in which state schools and public hospitals have the same management and budgetary autonomy as hospitals under public-private partnerships (PPPs) or schools under association contracts” and towards “convergence towards no distinction between public and private provision”.

*** Housing ***

The goal is to build 59,000 public houses and provide financing for more projects, including public-private partnerships in vacant state-owned properties suitable for housing.

The executive is moving towards the creation of “an exceptional and temporary regime to accelerate construction and renovation through private or cooperative supply” and is committed to a substantial reduction in taxes and the application of VAT at the minimum rate of 6% on construction and rehabilitation works and services, as well as the simplification of urban planning permits.

The Government also proposes to review the urban rental regime and unify the various forms of public support for existing rents into a single model, while also committing to the introduction of secure long-term rental contracts.

*** Justice and corruption ***

The Government will set up a working group, made up of academics, magistrates and lawyers, to speed up proceedings and eliminate mega-cases.

It also proposes, without giving details, to change the rules of access to the Supreme Court of Justice to ensure “the rejuvenation of the body of judges, in order to avert the imminent risk of a shortage of judges in the Supreme Court of Justice”.

Other measures include reviewing the “parole and successive enforcement of sentences regime, as well as mechanisms for making sentences more flexible” and strengthening the security of prisons with signal inhibitors to prevent the illegal use of mobile phones and drones inside prisons.

In the area of corruption, the Government is committed to implementing measures from the Anti-Corruption Agenda, approved in the previous legislative term, such as the regulation of lobbying and the registration of the Government’s legislative “footprint”.

*** Law and order ***

The focus is on “strengthening visible, community policing as a way of enhancing public tranquillity” through the reorganisation of the distribution of Public Security Police (PSP) and national guard personnel, partnerships with local authorities and the revision of the legal framework for municipal police forces.

The executive also wants to reduce “the crime rate, particularly violent and serious crime” during this legislative term and to strengthen the fight against juvenile and group crime, domestic violence, the creation and sharing of digital content harmful to the development of children and young people, road accidents, cybercrime and disinformation.

In the programme, the executive commits to a strategic plan to combat drug trafficking and consumption and to review the legislation associated with this crime.

*** Defence ***

The target of reaching 2% of Gross Domestic Product spending in defence investment this year - previously set for 2029 - has been brought forward, with a fifth of this figure earmarked for goods, infrastructure and equipment.

Without going into detail, this strategic reinforcement plan includes among its main measures the “stimulation of investments with dual use, military and civil,” but leaves two conditions for achieving this goal.

“The maintenance of the national Social State model and the creation of a favourable environment for the national security and defence industry, which is capable of having a multiplier effect on public investment due to its capacity for internal absorption of expenditure in this area”, reads the document.

The creation of public-private partnerships in areas strategic to national defence - citing the model of OGMA (Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal, a Portuguese company dedicated to the provision of maintenance and manufacturing services for aerostructures) - is another of the measures recommended in the context of support for the defence industries.

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