Politics

Increase in number of immigrants from other Portuguese-speaking countries

At the inauguration of his centre-right government in May 2024, Portugal’s prime minister Luis Montenegro, promised that all Portuguese citizens would have a family doctor by the end of 2025, but this promise seems increasingly out of reach. This year there were over 1,6 million patients without a GP, 60,000 more than two years ago.


In June, the National Statistics Institute (INE) revised the Portuguese population figure upwards. There are in fact 11,4 million people in the country, of whom 14% (1,6 million) are foreign residents; more than a third of them Brazilians. Particularly the shift in recent years has been significant: between 2021 and 2025, the number of foreign residents doubled, with an crease of 850,000.


The data also show that the growth of the South Asian population is slowing down and the Indian community was overtaken in 2025 by the Angolan community – which now outnumbers 100,000 citizens. The growth in the number of citizens from other Portuguese-speaking countries (PALOP) has been significant over the past five years.

As had already been the case in 2025, the Portuguese economy began 2026 at a considerably slower pace than seen in the previous quarters. In the first three months of this year, growth was virtually zero, with the positive contribution from domestic demand ( increase in investment) being offset by a negative contribution from external trade (increase in imports)


The government’s 2% growth target is therefore becoming more difficult to achieve, requiring an average quarterly growth of around 0.5% until the end of the year. It will be necessary to regain market share in exports and hope that the inflation does not spiral out of control and the European Central Bank does not raise interest rates any further.  

House prices continue to rise at a much faster rate than the European Union  average. The House Price Index rose by 17.6% in 2025, compared with 9.1% in 2024.The EU average last year stood at 5.5% (3.3% in 2024). And growth in the first half of 2026 remains strong (17.8%), although slightly below the record high in the 4th quarter of last year( 18.9%).

The limited supply of housing (for purchase and rent) – despite an estimated 250,000 vacant properties – the shortage of new construction and the rise in demand from young people as well as foreigners, account for much of this.

The marking of secondary school exams – which determine entry to higher education – is under fire. There are 166,000 pupils and their families, as well as thousands of teachers, who now harbour doubts about how marks were being awarded. But there is more, such as the structural shortage of teachers and the ministry’s top-to-bottom reform in higher education


But there is also some good news in a country where educational qualifications are still not as high as should be: there has been a slight increase in the proportion of young people intending to apply to university. It helps that the entry requirements are less stringent this year – just one exam, rather than the two required last year.


Enjoy your holidays         Aproveite as suas férias          (pic Público/Lusa)




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Concern

Worldwide there is a ‘silent majority’ in favour of action on climate change

The world is on fire and climate action very popular. So why is it not realised?
Research shows that the vast majority of people around the world want more to be done to fight the climate crisis but mistakenly assume their peers do not. Making concerned people aware their views are far from alone could unlock the change so urgently needed.

The data comes from a global survey – published in the journal Nature Climate Change – that interviewed people across 125 countries and found that 89% were of the opinion that their national government ‘should do more to fight global warming.’ People in China – the world’s biggest polluter – were among the most concerned.

It also asked people if they would ‘contribute 1% of their household income to fight global warming’. In almost all countries, people believed only a minority of their fellow citizens would be willing to contribute. In reality the opposite was true: more than 50% of citizens were willing to give 1% of their income, including Portugal, where eight out of ten Portugues prioritise the environment above the economy.

Further analysis of the data for the British newspaper The Guardian showed that public backing for climate action was as strong among the G20 member countries as in the rest of the world. These states, including the US, China, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Australia, are responsible for three-quarters of the global carbon emissions.

‘Worrying about climate change is something people are doing largely in privacy of their own minds – we  are locked in a self-fulfilling ‘spiral of silence’, states prof Cynthia Frantz, at Oberlin College in the US.
A decades-long campaign of misinformation by the fossil fuel industry is a key reason the climate majority has been suppressed.

To unite the ‘silent majority’ and allow the collective voice to become more audible in the political arena, we should focus the climate debate more on intergenerational issues – such as legacy passed from grandparents to grandchildren – and less on individual contributions, says Anabela Carvalho, professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Minho.

But youngsters can also do their bit as shown in Sweden, where participant-led young planetary stewards perform paid summer jobs ‘inspiring hope for their future.’ Ideas come from the young people themselves and comprise projects such creating habitats (frog ponds) or a new stretch of hiking trail, building bird boxes and insect hotels, and running community workshops in local libraries.

‘I have a pretty pessimistic world view’, 18-year-ola Oona Verveld – one of the stewards – explains. ‘But through this initiative I feel I can contribute in ways that will have an impact. I don’t just watch climate change happening, I’m somehow active in improving it later on.’

Enjoy your week         Aproveite a semana                (pic David Hockney, painter, † 2026)

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