Portugal's government faces budget deficit while opposition votes down social benefit reform

The right‑wing Chega party announced it will vote against the final approval of the unified Social Benefit (PSU) in the Portuguese Parliament, maintaining its earlier stance that the proposal leaves existing conditions unchanged.

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro explained that Portugal opened the year with a 0.7% of GDP budget deficit, attributing it to several contingencies including recent severe storms, the fallout from the Middle‑East conflict, higher fuel prices and related production cost increases. He noted that the storms caused damage exceeding €5 billion, and emphasized that the government aims to balance the public accounts by the end of the year, even if that means a modest deficit.