In a statement, the Portuguese Association of Large Families (APFN) said that the budget bills given its first reading last week “confirms that the family is far from [being among] the strategic priorities for the country” and that “many of the errors from the past” have been maintained or worsened in it.

The draft budget contains measures that “could be praiseworthy" but "suffer from the same flaw of not considering each dependant (children or elderly parents) in calculating taxes,” it argues.

The APFN cites examples for both low-income households and others where families are “deepy damaged in tax matters”. In particular, it points out, the benchmark living minimum, on the basis of which many payments and benefits are calculated, “does not take into account the number of children”.

In the case of education expenses, the group notes, the maximum amount that can be deducted from income tax is €800 for the first child, but this falls to €400 for the second and €250 from the fourth.

Portugal, the association states, is one of the European Union member states that sets aside the lowest percentage of gross domestic product for policies to help families. At 1.44%, the figure is around half the euro-zone average, it said, citing an International Monetary Fund report from 2016.

“This signal is the opposite of what the country needs, at a moment of deep demographic deficit in which families, more than ever, should be stimulated in their decisions to have more children,” the group states.

Portugal’s birth rate has declined sharply in recent decades, and is now one of the lowest in the world. Its population is thus set to age sharply in the coming decades.