Sintra, Lisbon, July 14, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister on Monday noted the opposition Socialist Party's willingness to negotiate a strategic agreement on defence and said he hoped for "the broadest possible consensus", indicating that he would return to talks with the Socialists and far-right Chega Party.
"Our intention has always been to achieve the broadest possible consensus, and I believe that this will not be difficult, given the positions known to be held by the main Portuguese political parties, so that we can combine our security and defence policy with the strategic interest that this new era may also bring to the revitalisation of our economy," he said.
Luís Montenegro was speaking to journalists at the end of the inauguration ceremony for the new Sintra Hospital, after being asked about the challenge issued to him by the Socialist Party (PS) leader to negotiate a proposal for a ‘Strategic Agreement for a National Development and Defence Capacity Building Plan’.
The meeting requested by José Luís Carneiro "will be scheduled, of course," he said, adding that the government will "talk to all political parties, but in particular with the two main opposition parties," namely the PS and Chega.
Luís Montenegro refused to "discuss methodologies" at this time and stressed that "what really matters is that Portugal assumes its commitments and is able to fulfil them, something that unfortunately has not happened in the last decade".
"We are committed to doing so, we have made this commitment in the international context and in our Atlantic alliance, and obviously we view the willingness of the main opposition parties to cooperate with the Government, either directly with the Government or in the parliamentary context, especially when there are initiatives passing through parliament, in a positive spirit," he said.
The prime minister pointed out that the government already has "an investment plan that has already been predetermined, which is the Military Programming Law, but which naturally now has to be integrated into these new objectives, both for 2025 and for the following years".
The leader of the PS challenged the prime minister to negotiate with the Socialists a proposal for a ‘Strategic Agreement for a National Defence Development and Capacity Building Plan’ within three months.
According to the newspaper Público, which quotes a letter sent on Friday to Luís Montenegro, the socialist leader is asking for a formal hearing to begin this understanding and criticises Portugal's surprise announcement at the NATO summit on increasing defence investment to 2% of GDP this year and 5% by 2035.
José Luís Carneiro argues that decisions of this magnitude require broad political consensus and proposes the establishment of a joint PSD/PS parliamentary working group which, in conjunction with the Government and representatives "of the sectors relevant to the matter under consideration", could present, within three months, a proposal for a Strategic Agreement for a National Defence Development and Capacity Building Plan.
In the letter, the PS leader writes that such consensus "should be based on structural principles, shared strategic guidelines and a set of concrete measures" involving the sectors of industry, science, innovation, education and public administration.
At the last NATO summit in The Hague at the end of June, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro stated that Portugal will have to increase its defence budget by around €1 billion by the end of the year to reach 2% of GDP and that this will be done through "enhancement of human resources", bringing forward some of the targets of the Military Programming Law and investment in infrastructure.
At that summit, the allies committed to investing 5% of GDP by 2035 in military spending, of which 3.5% would be purely defence-related and an additional 1.5% would be invested in other areas such as infrastructure and industry.
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