President of Portugal Cavaco Silva is unlikely to submit the 2014 State Budget to the Constitutional Court for checking.
In his New Year’s speech on January 1, the head of state considered the budget to be a “relevant tool” to achieve an “essential goal” for the country – to successfully complete the financial adjustment programme in June and re-enter the markets with “reasonable interest rates”.
Cavaco Silva took a different approach to last year, when he announced in his New Year’s speech that he would be submitting some budget rulings to the TC for check their constitutionally. This time round, he did not make it clear whether “successive checking” of some of the measures by the TC would be a possibility on the table.
And while the President does not believe that Portugal will need a second bailout, he accepted that a “cautionary programme” may be inevitable.
Cavaco Silva again stressed the importance of reaching consensus among the political scene, explaining that the country’s issues go beyond any political differences and that it is “Portugal’s future and the future of new generations” that is at risk.
