Speaking to journalists at the former National Coach Museum in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that "the government has already announced that it will present the budget for 2020 by 15 December".

"Therefore, soon after, and before the end of the year, I will receive the political parties, as I promised them, and the social partners, to hear them about the budget, which will then be voted - and probably the vote will be taken next year," he added.

Rebelo de Sousa said that these meetings with the ten political parties with parliamentary seats were scheduled when he received them on the prime minister's nomination, two days after the 6 October legislative elections.

"What I told the parties, when I received them for the prime minister's nomination, was that I would receive them as soon as the government presented its budget proposal," he said.