In Portugal, the parliament rejected the minority government’s draft budget on Wednesday, paving the way for early elections. Parties of the extreme left that had previously been allied with Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s socialists voted on Wednesday together with the conservatives against the budget plan for 2022. The communists and the left bloc declared that Costa had disregarded their demands for better worker protection and was too outraged focused on reducing the budget deficit. Costa wants to reduce the deficit to 3.2 percent of economic power after 4.3 percent in 2021. He justified the project with the fact that Portugal should not gamble away its reputation abroad, which has been hard-earned with a strict austerity course. The failure of the budget does not necessarily lead to new elections. However, in the run-up to the budget vote, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that if the vote was rejected, he had no other option than bringing the elections forward two years and, as a first step, dissolving parliament.
Portugal – Draft Budget Rejected – Politics
