Possible defeat of State Budget 2022 by parliament would ‘most likely’ lead to general election
Speaking to journalists in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa warned that a possible defeat of the State Budget for 2022 could lead to the dissolution of parliament and early elections.
Portugal’s president on Wednesday warned that a possible defeat of the State Budget for 2022 would “most likely” lead to the dissolution of parliament and early elections.
Speaking to journalists in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued that “the government could hardly continue to govern with this year’s budget divided by twelve, without European funds”.
The Head of State estimated that early parliamentary elections would take place in January, that a new government would take office in February and that there would only be a budget in April, and stressed that during this period there would be a “halt to many European funds”.
After outlining this scenario, he left the question, “Would the budget appearing in April, assuming it was easy to approve it in April, offset all the costs?”
“Therefore, because common sense shows that the costs are very high, I believe that the State Budget will naturally be approved by parliament”.
