The President of the Republic Cavaco Silva enacted the 2013 State Budget over the past weekend, so it would be published in the Diário da República (Official Gazette) on Monday, December 31, the deadline for a decision to be made.
Cavaco Silva had until the last day of the year to enact or veto the State Budget, which took effect on January 1 2013.
Portugal’s National Assembly sent the State Budget to the President on December 11 (see Algarve Resident edition of December 14).
From the moment the State Budget is published in the Diário da República, the President can request successive assessments of the document’s legality, although there is no established deadline for that course of action.
During his New Year’s Day speech, Cavaco Silva announced that he would forward the controversial State Budget to the Constitutional Court, which will decide on the conformity of the 2013 state budget with the constitution of the republic.
Nonetheless, Cavaco Silva believes that the State Budget will “fulfil its purpose in reducing the deficit as agreed with international authorities”, but warns for the “urgent need to end the recessive spiral” in which Portugal is living and “focus efforts” on economic growth, or the Portuguese “sacrifices won’t be worth much”.
The opposition Socialist party has already questioned the validity of the tax hikes included in the State Budget. It has threatened to take the matter to the Constitutional Court if Cavaco Silva does not.
