Was Chega's Minimum Pension Proposal Actually Viable?
“Andre Ventura stated that Chega's proposal to raise minimum pensions would cost around 4% to 5% of the Social Security budget, making it affordable.”
Independent budget calculations confirm the financial impact would be around 4-5% of total Social Security spending, making the measure financially possible — though it would require political choices to cut elsewhere.
What They Said
During Portugal’s budget debate, Chega (a right-wing populist party) proposed raising minimum pensions to match the IAS (Indexante dos Apoios Sociais, the Social Support Index, a key reference value for social benefits in Portugal).
The government and the Socialist Party (PS) accused the measure of being “irresponsible” and of “blowing up the public accounts.” Andre Ventura, Chega’s leader, countered that the cost would be marginal: around 4-5% of Social Security’s total budget.
What The Documents Show
We checked the numbers against official Social Security data:
The Math
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Estimated annual cost of the measure | 900 million to 1.1 billion euros |
| Total Social Security annual budget | Over 30 billion euros |
| Cost as percentage of total | ~3.3% to 4% |
The Verdict
Ventura’s claim about the size of the cost (4-5%) is true. The numbers check out.
You can politically disagree about where to find that money. You can argue that other priorities should come first. You can debate whether this is the best use of limited resources. These are legitimate political disagreements.
But the mathematical claim that this is not an impossible amount, that it would not “blow up” the public accounts, is correct. The “budget disaster” framing is a political argument, not an absolute accounting fact.
Why This Matters
We publish this fact-pack with a “Confirmed” verdict because credibility requires fairness. We check claims from all parties. When the numbers support what was said, we say so, regardless of who said it.
Social Security budget execution data is public. Parliamentary proposals are public. The arithmetic does not have a political party.
Sources & Documents
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