Africa-Press – Cape verde. The president of the UCID party criticized the 2026 State Budget today, stating that it “prioritizes government propaganda and technical assistance,” while keeping workers, the elderly, and people with special needs in “extreme poverty, without addressing historical debts.”
Deputy João Santos Luís, who is also president of the Cape Verdean Independent and Democratic Union (UCID, opposition), made these criticisms at the opening of the parliamentary debate on the 2026 State Budget, and considered the government’s proposal a “wasteful and electioneering instrument” that “ignores structural problems and commitments made” by the executive branch.
For the parliamentarian, the State Budget should be “an instrument that reflects the appropriate policies of all sectors of activity, as well as the availability of resources and their correct application.”
However, he highlighted that the current proposal does not adequately address the promises that the government has been announcing in terms of infrastructure and measures that impact economic growth and the lives of Cape Verdean families.
According to the UCID (Union for Democratic Coalition), the tax burden continues to increase, now representing 20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while “there is not even an increase in productivity, an issue that the UCID has been drawing attention to for a long time.”
The deputy warned of the growth in public debt, which “increases from 200 million escudos in 2016 to 313.7 million escudos in 2025 and 317.4 million escudos in 2026.”
“The servicing of internal and external debt increases from 30.7 million escudos in 2025 to 31.9 million in 2026, negatively impacting the attraction of investments and access to credit for projects considered priorities,” he indicated.
He pointed out that the internal debt, considered “more dangerous,” will increase from 99.1 million escudos in 2025 to 108 million escudos in 2026. The external debt, according to the figures presented, will stand at 210.6 million escudos in 2025 and 209.2 million escudos in 2026.
The parliamentarian stated that the Government “is once again dropping the mask,” recalling that, because it is an election year, the Budget allocates more than five million escudos to technical assistance for residents and non-residents, in addition to government advertising and propaganda, expenses considered of “dubious application” which, in his view, do not reflect “the necessary transparency of public spending.”
The UCID also criticized the absence of support measures for workers, the elderly, and people with special needs, who remain “in extreme poverty with a meager six thousand escudos per month since 2018 for food, medicine, and housing.”
The deputy also recalled “historical debts of the State,” such as “more than 600,000 contos” owed to former workers of EMPA, a public company dissolved in 2003, and the absence of survivor pensions for former military personnel from the first intake in 1975, who continue to live in precarious conditions.
“We are facing a 2026 State Budget that clearly reflects a wasteful and electioneering instrument,” he declared, concluding that it symbolizes the closing of a ten-year cycle of policies that, in his assessment, failed in several strategic areas.
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