Lisbon, Feb. 12, 2026 (Lusa) - The Portuguese government on Thursday requested the speaker of parliament to postpone the fortnightly debate with the prime minister, scheduled for Friday, due to the worsening situation in the central region of the country as a result of extreme weather conditions.
In view of this request from the Government, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco will now consult the parties represented in parliament on the possibility of finding a new date for the fortnightly debate, which had already been postponed from Wednesday to Friday.
On Wednesday, also due to the situation in the Coimbra region, which was hit by floods, the parties, by consensus, after an extraordinary leaders' conference meeting, rescheduled the fortnightly debate for Friday at 10 a.m. This decision enabled Luís Montenegro to visit the areas of the Mondego River affected by the floods, together with the country's outgoing president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Now, the Government considers that there has been a further substantial worsening of extreme weather conditions since Wednesday afternoon's leaders' conference meeting, when it was decided to reschedule the debate for Friday at 10:00.
The Government claims that there are currently thousands of people displaced in the Coimbra region and that the Lisbon/Porto motorway is closed due to a breach in a dyke on the Mondego River. On the other hand, still in the area of transport, it is pointed out that rail traffic on the main Northern Line between Lisbon-Porto is also halted.
Given this situation, the Government believes that the conditions are not in place for the fortnightly debate in parliament to take place, as the prime minister, among other reasons, needs to be on the ground to monitor the situation directly.
The parties will now have to unanimously agree to the decision to reschedule, for the second time, the fortnightly debate with Luís Montenegro in parliament.
On Wednesday, the Liberal Initiative was the only parliamentary group to oppose the rescheduling of the fortnightly debate from Wednesday to Friday, considering that this week the country will still be experiencing bad weather, with heavy and persistent rain, with serious consequences in terms of flooding. This is precisely what happened from Wednesday afternoon in Coimbra.
In a statement released on Wednesday morning, the Liberal Initiative argued that the fortnightly debate with the prime minister should be postponed to "a time of less distress for the population" and considered that "it makes no sense to schedule it for Friday and then postpone it again", as the situation in Coimbra might not be resolved.
"In demanding times, political leaders are expected to show a sense of statehood and prioritise the country. Parliament must rise to the national circumstances and at this moment the prime minister must be alongside the Portuguese people on the ground," the liberals wrote in the same text, adding that "this is a time for political and operational coordination, not parliamentary confrontation".
However, the Liberal Initiative's position was contested mainly by the parliamentary left, with Livre, the Socialists (PS) and Communists rejecting the postponement of the debate with the prime minister to next week.
Speaking to journalists, the speaker of the PS Parliamentary Group, Eurico Brilhante Dias, stressed that parliament is a sovereign body, recalled that it met during the Covid-19 pandemic with the country in a state of emergency, and expressed an "indefinite postponement" of the fortnightly debate with the prime minister.
PMF/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
