Lisbon, Oct. 11, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister, Luís Montenegro, has cancelled his planned participation in the 11th Summit of the Southern Countries of the European Union (MED9), to be held on Friday in Paphos, Cyprus, with Portugal instead to be represented by its minister of foreign affairs, Paulo Rangel.

On Thursday, the day that the government presented the 2025 draft state budget to parliament - the first of the right-of-centre minority coalition government led by Montenegro, with no guarantee that it will secure approval in the assembly, the prime minister's office issued a statement announcing that "Portugal's representation at the Summit of the Countries of the South of the European Union, also known as MED9, in Cyprus, will be assured by the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel." 

Because this is a summit of the leaders of the nine countries that make up MED9 (Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Malta and Portugal) together with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the prime minister was initially due to take part. But given the political situation in the country and the doubts surrounding the approval of the 2025 budget, it was decided that Portugal should be represented by his foreign minister instead. 

Doubts surrounding whether the budget bill will get through, after the government adopted the draft without securing a final agreement with the main opposition Socialist Party (PS) despite weeks of talks, had already prompted Portugal's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to postpone his own trips to Estonia and Poland, arguing that it made more sense to "closely monitor" the ongoing negotiations and claiming that "the Portuguese would not understand" if he took any other approach.

After Thursday's submission of the draft budget to parliament and its presentation to the media by the minister of finance, the first reading in parliament is scheduled for 31 October. 

This is followed by the "specialised" debate in parliamentary committees, where ministers present the parts of the budget for their own areas. The process ends with the final reading and vote on 29 November. 

With the current composition of parliament, where Montenegro's centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) and its coalition partner the conservative People's Party (CDS-PP) do not have a majority, the budget could be approved if the PS abstains or if the far-right Chega, with its 50 members of parliament, votes in favour. Montenegro has said that negotiations with Chega are pointless because it has changed its position so much.

ACC/ARO // ARO.

Lusa