Portuguese MPs File 2,176 Edits to 2026 State Budget – Taxes on the Line

A record-shattering wave of amendment requests has poured into the Assembleia da República, forcing budget experts to work through the weekend. Deputies from every bench lodged a combined 2,176 proposals to tweak the Government’s draft Orçamento do Estado for 2026, eclipsing last year’s high-water mark and underscoring how a fragmented chamber is tugging the document in sharply different directions.

A Parliament awash with amendments

Sunday’s official tally, posted online shortly after dawn, confirms that lawmakers have tabled 2,176 separate changes, the most ever recorded at this stage of the budget cycle. The volume is such that technicians in the Comissão de Orçamento e Finanças needed extra servers to keep the amendment database responsive. Although the filing deadline had been set for 18:00 Friday, negotiations over timing spilled into the evening, prompting the Speaker to grant a grace period. By the time the portal closed, the assembly’s electronic inbox was bursting.

Who filed the most requests — and why it matters

The right-wing party Chega leads the pack with 614 submissions, a figure some insiders attribute to its strategy of flooding debates with detailed line-by-line edits. Close behind, PCP logged 532, while the environmentalist Livre surprised observers by reaching 330. At the other end, the governing PS delivered 117, betting that a slimmer set of proposals could help preserve the draft’s delicate surplus. Centrist PSD/CDS-PP combined for 57 and the regional JPP added 50. Each total reflects not merely policy priorities but also negotiating tactics: parties with fewer seats often rely on amendment volume to gain leverage in late-night horse-trading.

From fuel taxes to tuition fees: what the changes seek

Even a cursory scan shows that fiscal relief dominates. Iniciativa Liberal wants corporate income tax cut to 18%, the PAN presses for lower VAT on veterinary care and pet food, while Chega champions scrapping the fuel surcharge and overhauling the rules of the social-inclusion income. The minority PS – defending its own plan – nonetheless floated a clause to make a permanent boost to pensions and to keep university tuition frozen. On the left flank, PCP demands a tenth personal-income-tax bracket for top earners and mandatory aggregation of capital gains; the intention, they argue, is to finance cheaper power bills and food staples. Although headlines focus on the big-ticket tax items, nearly one-third of amendments revolve around health staffing ratios, school meal subsidies, and municipal housing credits.

Watchdogs warn of budgetary gaps

The flood of ideas is already under scrutiny. The Unidade Técnica de Apoio Orçamental (UTAO) calculates that existing permanent measures in the Government’s baseline shave 1.08% of GDP off the 2026 balance, mostly because of pension and payroll growth. Add the new tweaks suggested by MPs, and the hit deepens. The Conselho das Finanças Públicas projects a 0.6% deficit, well below the Finance Ministry’s forecast of a 0.1% surplus. Analysts flag the same vulnerabilities: rigid current spending, a projected 23.2% drop in public investment, and the risk that one-off revenue items, such as the end of the temporary fuel-tax discount, will not repeat. The watchdogs’ verdict is not a veto, but it sets guardrails that negotiators cannot ignore.

How we reached this record: the bigger political picture

Portugal’s parliament has broken its own amendment record four years in a row. The trend accelerated after voters denied any party an absolute majority, creating what one constitutional scholar calls a "permanent committee stage". Frequent leadership changes – the OE2024 debates unfolded during a caretaker administration – encouraged opposition parties to bulk up their proposals, both to influence the text and to stake out campaign territory. This year, Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento openly challenged deputies to show whether they value the projected surplus. The gauntlet appears to have inspired even more tinkering, particularly on social spending and green investment.

What happens between now and 27 November

Committee sift-through begins on Monday. Rapporteurs will cluster related amendments into voting blocks, a process likely to continue well past midnight sessions. Government whips aim to secure enough cross-bench support to keep the headline balance in the black, yet privately admit that key concessions on energy VAT and public-sector pay may prove unavoidable. If all goes according to the calendar, the full chamber will cast the decisive vote on 27 November. For residents already planning 2026 household budgets, the final shape of tax tables, utility rates and student-fee caps will hinge on those last-minute compromises. Until then, the only certainty is that every comma in the 2,176-page amendment bundle remains up for debate.