On June 14th, 2025, the XXV Constitutional Government presented its Government Program, which contains the main political guidelines and measures to be adopted or proposed in the various areas of government activity.
The Government Program is scheduled to be discussed in plenary on June 17th, 2025. It does not need to be approved, but if it is rejected or a vote of confidence is not passed, the government will be dismissed.
Looking at the Program, the mission of this Government is presented from the very beginning:
“The mission of the XXV Government is based on an essential principle: without wealth creation, it is not possible to effectively combat poverty, sustain the welfare state, guarantee social mobility or affirm national sovereignty. The Portuguese economy can no longer be limited by structural obstacles that suppress investment, discourage merit and penalize productivity.”
With this in mind, the XXV Constitutional Government has defined the following priorities:
I. An income policy that values work and savings, merit and Social Justice
II. State reform and war on bureaucracy: simplifying life for citizens and companies
III. Creating wealth, accelerating the economy and increasing added value
IV. Regulated and more humane immigration
V. Essential services working for all and with quality, with complementarity between public, private and social provision
VI. Closer security, faster justice and the fight against corruption
VII. Building Portugal: mobilizing everyone to overcome the housing crisis
VIII. New infrastructures that project the country
IX. Water that Unites: safeguarding the future
X. Strategic reinforcement plan for defense investment
In terms of procedural simplification, we highlight the intention to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the licensing, authorization and public procurement systems, eliminating excessive prior pronouncements (including binding or non-binding opinions), favoring a posteriori supervision, adopting tacit approval whenever possible, and penalizing unjustified rejections; and introducing “sunset clause” mechanisms, ensuring that the absence of clarification regarding a licensing process extinguishes certain requirements.
From a fiscal point of view, this government intends to reduce personal income tax, especially for the middle class, reduce corporate income tax, with a gradual reduction to 17% (and 15% for SMEs), concentrate tax incentives on the most effective areas, complemented by additional reductions in marginal rates and gradual attenuation of the progressivity of the tax via the state surcharge, reinforce the principles of limited taxation of reinvested profits and remove all tax and regulatory disincentives for companies to gain scale.
One of the measures presented, with a goal of creating wealth, accelerating the economy and increasing added value, is also related to the revision of insolvency regimes, by adopting the best European practices, in order to facilitate restructuring agreements, guarantee speed, preserve the economic value of businesses and strengthen the instruments of creditor control.
With regard to immigration, the XXV Constitutional Government has defined three dimensions for a new regulated immigration policy:
a. resolving pending issues;
b. regulating entry, limiting multiple entries, tightening security controls, monitoring national territory and removing those who do not comply with Portuguese law, and
c. humanely welcoming and integrating those who come, complying with current rules and national constitutional values.
Among the main measures, we can highlight:
1. Revision of the nationality law
– Extending the minimum time of residence and effective presence in national territory, eliminating the possibility of illegal residence being considered for the purposes of counting this time;
– Ensure that those who acquire Portuguese nationality have an effective relationship and successful integration in the country.
2. Revision of the law on foreigners and the asylum law
– Limit migratory flows, namely family reunification, to the capacity of public services and the integration of Portuguese society;
– Restricting work visas to highly qualified candidates;
– Consider introducing criteria for progress in the Portuguese language when renewing certain types of residence permit.
3. Creation of a new rapid and effective system for the removal of illegal aliens
4. Adopt mechanisms and procedures that promote and give priority to attracting and retaining highly qualified talent from abroad, including Portuguese emigrants and Lusodescendants, as well as foreign students and researchers in Portuguese higher education institutions and research centers;
5. Reviewing the process of issuing Residence Certificates by parish councils, creating a system that centralizes registrations and introduces limits on the number of testimonies and limits per property.
In terms of security policies, the following should be highlighted: Investment in the security forces’ video surveillance capacity in partnership with local authorities and the distribution of bodycams to the security forces, in compliance with current data protection regulations; strengthening the forces’ operational capacity, especially to combat violent and serious crime, drug trafficking and organized crime; and strengthening prevention and the capacity to combat: juvenile and group crime, domestic violence, the creation and sharing of digital content harmful to the development of children and young people (namely pornography and sexual content), road accidents, cybercrime and hybrid threats (such as disinformation, illegitimate electoral interference and the dissemination of violent content in the digital space).
In terms of justice, the government intends, among other measures:
1. Amend criminal procedural legislation, ensuring greater filtering of complaints, strengthening the judge’s powers of procedural management and rationality in terms of appeals (restricting the number of appeals, their timing in the flow of the process and their suspensive effects), and rethinking the pre-trial phase, namely limiting its scope or the possibility of access;
2. Moving forward with the reform of the Administrative and Tax Jurisdiction;
3. Increasing the use of alternative means of resolving disputes.
As far as the fight against corruption is concerned, among the main measures defined, it is important to take into account the intention to regulate the registration of legitimate interests (“lobbying”) and to strengthen the instruments for confiscating the advantages of criminal activity, namely through a new mechanism for the extended confiscation of assets.
In terms of housing, given the housing crisis in Portugal, there are several measures that need to be taken:
1. Creation of an exceptional and temporary regime to speed up construction and renovation through private or cooperative supply, namely through the elimination or reduction of tax costs on construction or rehabilitation works; substantial reduction of urbanization, building, use and occupation taxes; application of VAT at a minimum rate of 6% on construction and rehabilitation works and services, with a limit on the impact on the final value of the property;
2. Creation of a new construction code, decisively reinforcing simplification and predictability, completing the transition from the prior control model to an a posteriori objective inspection model, and reducing construction obligations and requirements that are not essential to safety;
3. Revision of the urban rental regime, restoring confidence to the market and guaranteeing the effective termination of contracts in the event of non-compliance, namely by evaluating the counter-reforms introduced, in particular those relating to duration and renewals (especially those of 2019) – evaluation and subsequent legislative revision – strengthening and qualifying the Rental and Landlord Counter, the use of extrajudicial means and justices of the peace and urgent protection mechanisms for exceptional and urgent situations.