Lisbon, Sept. 1, 2026 (Lusa) - On Tuesday, the Socialist Party insisted on the creation of a subcommittee to monitor military investment under the SAFE loans, pressed Chega to approve it, and held the government responsible for the controversies surrounding deals such as the one for the frigates.

PS MP Marcos Perestrello announced the resubmission of this initiative, which parliament rejected last year following votes against by the PSD and the CDS-PP and an abstention by Chega, at a press conference in parliament, accompanied by the party's coordinator on the Defence Committee, Luís Dias, and MP Patrícia Faro.

«Now that Chega has woken up to the need to make the military procurement process more transparent and inclusive, it has the opportunity here to demonstrate that it genuinely wishes to create a mechanism for institutionalised and permanent scrutiny, rather than simply making a fuss only to resolve nothing in the end,» insisted Perestrello, who is also the deputy speaker of parliament, in a reference to the exchange of accusations between the leader of Chega and the minister of defence.

In addition to setting up a parliamentary subcommittee to monitor investments made under the European SAFE (Security Action Facility for Europe) loans, the PS will also table a draft resolution, which has no force of law, recommending that the government submit to Parliament a multi-annual national defence development and capability-building plan.

This plan, according to the Socialists, should include «concrete priorities and targets for the modernisation of the Armed Forces and the strengthening of the defence technology and industrial base, research and innovation centres, the integration of Portuguese companies into European value chains, the creation of skilled jobs and the exploitation of the dual-use potential of defence investments, all with a view to building a national strategic commitment» in this area.

Perestrello recalled that, around one year ago, the PS challenged the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, to establish a «strategic agreement» with the Socialists in the field of defence, and said that the government had «missed the opportunity» and had been giving «insufficient and unclear answers» to the questions put by the parliamentary group.

«We are facing the largest investment effort in defence since the establishment of democracy. It is precisely at this moment that the greatest consensus, the greatest transparency and also the greatest involvement of Parliament are required. The government has chosen a different path,» he noted.

Perestrello maintained that «this is not the norm in national defence», an area that usually enjoys consensus between the two main parties, the PS and the PSD, and cited the Military Programming Law (LPM) as an example, which is debated in parliament.

The MP highlighted the case of the three frigates that Portugal is set to acquire from Italy, an investment of around €3.9 billion announced in July, and noted that the Government had, «in a single decision, neither discussed nor debated», allocated two-thirds of the total SAFE budget (€5.8 billion) to a single programme.

Perestrello acknowledged the military rationale behind the choice and encouraged the government to take care «to publicly justify its strategic necessity».

«The way in which the government has so far conducted the process of acquiring these frigates, in a government-to-government deal which, as such, has every chance of avoiding controversy, has resulted in a cloud of doubts and unanswered questions that is absolutely intolerable and incompatible with the healthy development of the programme, which should deserve strong political and social support,» he pointed out.

The PS MP considered that all the controversies «are the sole responsibility of the government and its silence».

However, the Socialists believe there is still scope to «correct this course» by approving the two initiatives tabled.

ARL/ADB // ADB.

Lusa