Lisbon, Feb. 12, 2026 (Lusa) - The government and political parties reached a consensus on Thursday to postpone the fortnightly parliamentary debate with the prime minister, scheduled for Friday, until the 19th, parliamentary sources told the Lusa news agency.
This morning, the government asked the speaker of parliament to postpone the fortnightly debate with the prime minister again, due to worsening conditions in the central region caused by extreme weather.
In view of this request from the PSD/CDS government, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco immediately began a round of consultations with the parties, as rescheduling the date of the fortnightly debate required unanimity.
Following several contacts, the speaker of parliament reached a consensus to reschedule the fortnightly debate, with Luís Montenegro in attendance, for next Thursday at 3 p.m.
This morning, the PS also agreed to the government's new request to postpone the fortnightly debate with the prime minister, but demanded a guarantee that the debate would take place on 19 or 20 February, which the government accepted.
Shortly afterwards, at a press conference, the PCP secretary-general, Paulo Raimundo, said that the debate on the devastation of the mainland caused by the series of storms should have taken place last week, as his party had demanded. He added, however, that the communist bench would not "dig in its heels" against the government's request for postponement.
This series of postponements and rescheduling of the fortnightly debate with the prime minister began on Wednesday morning. 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 10:00. This decision enabled Luís Montenegro to visit the areas of the Mondego River affected by the floods, together with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
This morning, however, the Government considered that the extreme weather conditions had further worsened after the end of Wednesday afternoon's leaders' conference, when it was decided to reschedule the debate to Friday at 10:00.
The Government claimed that thousands of people are currently 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, in the area of transport, it is noted that rail traffic on the Northern Line is also interrupted.
Given this situation, the Government considered that the conditions were not in place for the fortnightly debate in Parliament to take place on Friday, as the prime minister, among other reasons, needs to be on the ground to monitor the situation directly.
On Wednesday, when this process began, the Liberal Initiative was the only parliamentary group to oppose rescheduling the fortnightly debate from Wednesday to Friday, as this week the country will still be experiencing heavy, persistent rain with serious flooding consequences. This is precisely what happened from Wednesday afternoon onwards 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", since the situation in Coimbra might not be resolved.
For Friday, the agenda set at the leaders' conference on the 4th will remain unchanged, i.e., before parliament made a first postponement of the fortnightly debate, which should have taken place on Wednesday but was then rescheduled for Friday and now again for the 19th.
As for the agenda planned for 19 February, which was entirely filled with political statements from parliamentary groups and individual MPs, the only item will now be the fortnightly debate with the prime minister.
PMF/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
