Jokowi, who played a key role in Prabowo’s victory in the last presidential election, has made Nusantara a key part of his legacy, spending his final weeks working at the half-finished presidential palace and pushing out new policies to build as much as possible before his term ended in October of last year.

Prabowo has publicly expressed his commitment to completing the construction of the new capital, but the President has not shown as much interest in accelerating the project’s completion since taking office late last year, prioritizing instead his flagship free meals program aimed at reducing the country’s perceived high prevalence of stunting.

The President ordered last month sweeping budget cuts from all ministries and agencies, aiming to accumulate Rp 306 trillion (US$18.7 billion) to fund his administration’s costly priority programs, particularly the free meals for 82.9 million school children and pregnant women. The government has allocated Rp 71 trillion to run the program for the 2025 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the new government set aside around Rp 48 trillion for Nusantara’s development until the end of Prabowo’s term in 2029, marking a decline from the Rp 75 trillion budget allocation between 2022 and 2024 in Jokowi's administration.

Speculations about Prabowo’s possible U-turn on the capital development intensified after Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo unveiled last week that the Nusantara project has yet to make any progress this year, noting that the Finance Ministry has frozen budgets needed to continue its construction.

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