An unlikely leader. According to all the votes registered on the Parliament website, Chega was the party that voted the most times together with the PS in the proposals to modify the General State Budgets for 2022 presented by the socialist parliamentary majority, closely followed by the PAN and a considerable distance from BE and the PCP, former allies of governance.

In the final speech of the debate on the State Budget, André Ventura took advantage of the moment to affirm himself as a true leader of the opposition. “There is only one party in this chamber that faces the PS”, guaranteed the leader of Chega, attacking the “crazy proposals that the PS wants to carry out”. However, the final accounts tell another story.

The Observer counted the voting direction of each of the parties in the specialty in each of the specific votes on the proposals that were approved, which excludes Livre, because you don’t have a seat in the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance (COF) and, therefore, was not present for these votes—he was only able to vote on the amendment proposals that were brought to plenary.

Back to the accounts: by 56 times the party led by Andre Ventura he sided with the PS and made possible the reform proposals of the socialist majority presented in the COF. This accounting includes all the votes made in the specialty, including the breakdown of the articles of the PS modification proposals.

The final numbers highlight Chega at the forefront, in support of the changes coming from the Socialists, even after Ventura said, in the final debate, that the PS is preparing to “take the country to bankruptcy“. In the same speech, the leader of Chega had also pointed out that “the PS approved proposals from everyone except Chega” (see below in this text) and underlined how this separation of waters was a “pride“.

It should be noted, however, that the State Budget was finally approved with the votes in favor of the socialist majority and with the abstention of the PAN, Livre and the three deputies of the PSD-Madeira, all the others, arrives includednay.

The PAN is the second party that more times aligned itself with the PS, with 51 votes in favor, this being one of the parties that was considered one of the preferred partners of the Socialists in this Budget, together with the Livre de Rui Tavares (which does not appear in these accounts for the reasons already explained).

There is even an example in which PAN and Chega were left alone in the same boat as the PS: in the proposal to reinforce the decentralization fund for education, the parties of Inês Sousa Real and André Ventura were the only ones who voted in favor. The rest abstained.

The Bloc is the third party that proposes the most changes from the Socialists (43), followed by the Liberal Initiative (38), PCP (37) and, finally, the PSD (34).

IL was the party that voted the most times against the PS

The Social Democrats turn out to be the ones that most abstain from the changes coming from the PS (39 times) and, on the other hand, the Liberal Initiative is the party that most most often opposed (23 votes against), soon followed by the PCP (see below).

Chega once again stands out in this chapter of the opposition to what came from the PS in this Budget. Only 11 times they voted against — Bloco de Esquerda (9) and the bread (7) they voted against it less often than Ventura’s party.

One of the proposals that Chega opposed, for example, was the one that excluded the work carried out in the context of the 2023 World Youth Days in pre-inspection of the Court of Accounts, together with IL. PS’s proposed change was approved only by PS and PSD.

The Bloco and the PCP, partners of the PS for the last six years, were (after the PSD) the parties that most abstained in most it changes. It happened 36 times in the case of the blockists and 34 times in the case of the communists.

The PCP, for example, was the only one who abstained from the changes proposed by the PS to the Vehicle tax of Ukraineof refugees from the war, in line with what has been the communist position with everything that has to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The communists were the ones most times downvoted proposals from the PS and were even left alone with the Bloco de Esquerda —the two former partners— in rejecting a proposal from the PS on the fiscal incentive for the recovery of companies. Gone are the days when the PCP was praised by the President of the Government himself in parliamentary debates, for the support he gave the Socialist Government, specifically in the State Budget.

Also, it was rare for the PS to be left alone to vote for a proposed change, but it did happen on that controversial change: by the time and format you entered. After long hours of discussion about the lengthening of two limits on the division of the autarchies, he should not have been voted on, or PS managed to win his position, but he did not have two parties on his side, he did not vote in favor — after having received criticism about him “roller”of the majority.

And some socialist proposals were unanimously approved, especially with regard to the Autonomous Community of Azoresnamely, the proposal for a new prison in São Miguel, the remodeling of the court in the Azores, and the decontamination of Terceira Island.

The construction of the new central hospital in the Algarve was the other socialist proposal that had the favorable vote of all the benches and also the reinforcement of transparency on the amounts of the participation of local entities in State taxes.

It arrives with zero approved proposals. The PAN is an outstanding leader

Analyzing the opposition proposals that received the green light, the PAN was the party that saw the largest number of measures approved -there were 41- and, once again, it had unlikely help: enough behaved like assiduous allyhaving voted in favor of more than half of these proposals (22).

In these cases, the PSD seemed to want nothing to do with the PAN, which just a few months ago, in the legislative campaign, pretended to be equidistant from the central parties. The Social Democrats are the ones voted against more often the PAN proposals (at least, those that were approved).

The PAN will thus be the opposition party with the most proposals approved in number, although on the left mock with the content of some of them and the number of “studies, work groups and pilot projects-pilot projects” that result from them (Catarina Martins I saidon the PAN and the remaining “new partners” of the Executive).

Among the approved proposals, there are in fact several reports (on the quality of higher education accommodation, the carrying out of censuses of game species, the nutritional quality of the meals in the canteens or the safety in the surroundings of higher education institutions , to give some examples). ) and also proposals to put into practice measures that come from behind and that have never left the table (a lodging regime that welcomes wild or livestock animals or the implementation of the checkbook, for example).

But there are also proposals with a budgetary impact, such as the program to support the planting of native species (five million euros from the environmental fund) or the reinforcement of the financial mechanism to support the energy efficiency of buildings (40 million).

Then comes Livre, which saw 13 proposals approved, with IL showing itself almost as aligned with Rui Tavares’s party as the left: PAN approved 12 Livre measures, BE and IL approved 10. Among these, there are some from the party. biggest victories: the 3C program, to subsidize changes that promote energy efficiency in buildings, or the extension of unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence.

Many of these victories actually ended up being symbolic or quite altered in the negotiation with the Government -but that did not free Rui Tavares from the label of The executive’s new “best friend”.

The Liberal Initiative, on the other hand, would have achieved unanimity in the five proposals that it managed to see approved if it had not been for the PCP, which abstained on one and voted against another. Even so, the strategy of invoking rules to repeat their votes in plenary, not letting them die on the beach – in this case, in the Budget and Finance Committee – has borne fruit.

In several cases (the anticipation of the results of the granting of scholarships or the suspension of public support for entities sanctioned by the invasion of Ukraine), the PS even changed its vote and shook hands with the Liberals. EITHER plot twist in fullin the case of scholarships, it even provoked a hug from the liberal caucus (between deputies João Cotrim Figueiredo and Carla Castro).

The rest of the approvals, the story does not count: Chega did not obtain any and, despite having been a good “partner” of PS, he was not compensated in any case; PSD, Bloco de Esquerda and PCP, together, only saw six proposals approved.