Skip to main content
Portugal: EU forces Lisbon to make budget cuts

THE European Commission approved a budget from Portugal’s left-wing anti-austerity government yesterday after imposing about €845 million (£650m) in cuts.

In the latest EU assault on democracy, the commission forced Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s coalition of socialists, communists and greens to agree to bring its budget deficit down to 3.4 per cent of GDP, close to the EU limit on deficits of 3 per cent.

Even with that concession, EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the “government’s plans are at risk of non-compliance” with EU rules to keep deficits down and would need strict monitoring.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A view of the River Mersey and the city skyline, with the Royal Liver Building at centre, as the sun rises over Liverpool, October 2017
Austerity / 28 February 2026
28 February 2026

Liverpool Trades Council has unveiled a ‘People’s Budget’ to fight £56m cuts and council tax rises. DEAN YOUNG reports

Monica Crowley, White House chief of protocol (obstructed at left) greets European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, upon arriving to meet with President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, August 18, 2025
Features / 28 August 2025
28 August 2025

US tariffs have had Von der Leyen bowing in submission, while comments from the former European Central Bank leader call for more European political integration and less individual state sovereignty. All this adds up to more pain and austerity ahead, argues NICK WRIGHT

Guillaume Périgois
Politics / 14 August 2025
14 August 2025

Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT

President Donald Trump, center, speaks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, left, during a group photo of NATO heads of state and government at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 25, 2025
War Economy / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025

In an address to the Communist Party’s executive at the weekend international secretary KEVAN NELSON explained why the communists’ watchwords must be Jobs not Bombs and Welfare not Warfare