Lisbon, June 26, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese prime minister has said that he is convinced there will be a budget surplus this year despite the “new priority” for defence, guaranteeing that he will not transfer “one single cent” from any area of public policy.
In an interview with RTP on Wednesday evening, recorded in Brussels on the same day that the NATO Summit ended in The Hague, Luís Montenegro acknowledged that defence "is a new priority" for his government, but "does not call into question the others".
“Our expectation – no one has absolute certainty, the year is not over yet – but everything indicates, and we are fully confident, that we will reach the end of the year with balanced public accounts and, therefore, with a new budget surplus,” he said.
Asked whether the commitment to reach the target of 2% of GDP in the area of defence this year implies transferring funds from other areas such as health, he replied: “Absolutely not. We will not move a single cent in any of our public policy areas”.
Asked to explain how he will achieve this investment - which in The Hague he estimated would cost around €1 billion - Luís Montenegro assured that this is not ‘creative accounting’
“We haven’t just discovered a gold mine to pay for these expenses,” he said, adding that the government will allocate to defence “resources that are available from the reserves of the Ministry of Finance and from the capacity allowed by the budget itself”.
For the future, he admitted that the Government will have to “have a multi-year programme to continue to increase this investment in the coming years” in order to move closer to the 5% target set today for 2035.
As he had done at the end of the NATO Summit, the prime minister explained that this investment involves the rise in salaries and conditions already being made in the human resources of the armed forces, but also in equipment, giving as examples the need “to modernize the Pandur armoured vehicles”, “look at ocean patrol vessels” and taking advantage of the country’s existing “aircraft construction capabilities, such as the KC-390”.
“We can do this by looking at the capabilities of our industry and the maintenance capabilities we have in Portugal. This has another effect, which is to boost our economy,” he said.
Asked whether the commitments made in The Hague were due to pressure from the United States or a real need, Montenegro admitted that it was “a combination of both factors” and avoided commenting on US President Donald Trump’s threats that he could penalise Spain with additional tariffs if it refused to increase its defence spending.
“What we have to verify is whether this decision is the best decision for our countries, for our Europe, for the interests of our citizens. Today, our democracies are under serious threat,” he stressed.
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