Portugal’s Constitutional Court Seeks €1.6M for Digital Upgrade—MPs to Decide

A rare tug-of-war over the €11.3 million that the Constitutional Court is supposed to receive next year has drifted from the government benches to the Assembly floor. Ministers say their job is done; judges counter that the figure is still short by €1.6 million—money they claim is vital if Portugal’s highest court is to leave the age of paperwork behind.

At a glance

Although the draft State Budget offers the court a modest rise of less than 2 %, it does not cover the launch of a long-promised digital case-management platform, the strengthening of the watchdog that audits party accounts, or extra staff costs. The government insists the file is now in the lawmakers’ inbox, yet the court’s president warns that chronic under-financing risks chipping away at institutional independence.

Parliament holds the purse strings

When Public Administration Minister Leitão Amaro told reporters that the “ball is in Parliament’s court,” he was signalling that the executive will not revise its proposal before the final vote. Inside São Bento Palace, the arithmetic is fluid. Socialists, Left Bloc, Communists and Chega have all signalled that they could back an amendment to inject the requested €1.6 million, even if that pushes the overall envelope beyond the figure the Finance Ministry is comfortable with. The centre-right PSD and its ally CDS-PP are more sceptical, asking why the tribunal wants to renew its car fleet at the same time it pleads poverty. For citizens, the outcome will reveal whether the new one-seat majority is prepared to spend political capital on the country’s constitutional referee.

A court still drowning in paper

Portugal prides itself on being a frontrunner in digital governance, yet the tribunal that guards the Constitution remains the only court that processes files on paper. Judges complain that legal teams queue for hours to consult records and that rulings can take weeks to circulate. An in-house digital system, budgeted at roughly €750 000, would finally link the court to the rest of the judiciary’s network. The price tag covers servers, cybersecurity and migration of historical archives. Without it, the tribunal argues, delays will continue to undermine public confidence—especially when rulings on electoral disputes or extraordinary appeals are time-sensitive.

Political money, political oversight

Beyond the software upgrade, the requested boost would beef up the Entidade das Contas e Financiamentos Políticos, the small unit that scrutinises how parties raise and spend campaign funds. Its caseload has ballooned since new transparency rules took effect, yet staffing and forensic tools have not kept pace. Observers note that several high-profile inquiries, including probes into local-election financing in the Algarve, are already stalled. For reform-minded MPs who campaigned on cleaning up politics, denying the court the extra resources could be hard to justify.

Independence on a shoestring?

Constitutional scholars routinely remind governments that financial autonomy is a cornerstone of judicial independence. Mariana Canotilho, one of the court’s thirteen justices, told the budget committee that dipping into carry-over surpluses, as the Finance Ministry suggests, is “not a long-term solution.” Former justice Vital Moreira draws a comparison with the Tribunal de Contas, which obtained its own budget line after years of lobbying. If the Constitutional Court remains dependent on year-to-year bargaining, critics argue, it could feel pressured to tread lightly on legislation that affects the executive’s priorities.

What happens next

Budget rapporteurs will table their first batch of amendments in the coming week. If the €1.6 million top-up gathers cross-party support, the government will have to decide whether to absorb the cost elsewhere or accept a slightly higher deficit projection. Either way, the episode has reignited a broader debate: can a democracy expect its highest court to act as guardian of the rules while denying it the means to modernise? As MPs weigh that question, the tribunal’s registrars continue to stamp files by hand, a daily reminder that constitutional justice in Portugal still runs on ink and patience.