The political party Chega has supported a proposal by Carlos Moedas, leading to an increase in local accommodation ratios in Lisbon to 5% and 10%.
Local Accommodation. Chega enables Carlos Moedas' proposal and ratios in Lisbon rise to 5% and 10%
Thursday, 27 November 2025RSS
Context & Explainers
Local accommodation (alojamento local) means short-term tourist rentals—private apartments, houses or rooms rented for days or weeks—that must be registered and licensed with municipal authorities. Municipalities can suspend or cancel licences (Lisbon cancelled about 6,700 licences in early 2026), so travellers and hosts should check a listing's registration and local rules before booking or offering stays.
Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas (born August 10, 1970, in Beja) is a civil engineer, economist, and center-right politician who has served as Mayor of Lisbon since October 2021. He earned degrees in civil engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico and an MBA from Harvard, working at Goldman Sachs and founding his own investment firm before entering politics. During Portugal's 2011-14 bailout, he served as Secretary of State coordinating Troika-mandated structural reforms. From 2014-19, he was European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, managing €77 billion in research funding and designing the €100 billion Horizon Europe program. Moedas narrowly won Lisbon's mayoralty in 2021 with 34.3%, defeating Socialist incumbent Fernando Medina. Governing initially with a minority coalition, he implemented free public transport for youth and elderly residents, launched the "Unicorn Factory Lisboa" innovation hub attracting 82 tech companies and 16,000 jobs, and won Lisbon the 2023 European Capital of Innovation award. He was re-elected in October 2025 with 41.7%, securing eight of nine council seats. His significance lies in shifting Lisbon's political trajectory rightward after decades of Socialist governance, positioning the capital as a European tech hub while prioritizing housing development, carbon neutrality by 2030, and innovation-driven economic growth.
Chega ("Enough") is a Portuguese far-right populist party founded in 2019 by André Ventura. It positions itself as an anti-establishment movement against what it calls a "rotten and corrupt system" of PS-PSD dominance. The party surged from 1.3% in 2019 to 22.8% in May 2025, becoming parliament's second-largest force with 60 seats. Chega's core platform emphasizes strict immigration control—ending automatic CPLP residency, deporting non-independent immigrants, implementing job-market quotas, and requiring five-year social security contributions before benefit access. It advocates radical constitutional reform, including reducing parliament to 100 members, abolishing the prime minister position for a presidential system, and dismantling public healthcare. Law-and-order policies include life imprisonment and chemical castration proposals.
The party is defined by inflammatory anti-Romani rhetoric, with Ventura convicted multiple times for discrimination. Chega maintains international alignments with European far-right figures including Marine Le Pen, Santiago Abascal, and Matteo Salvini. Mainstream Portuguese parties, including Prime Minister Luís Montenegro's government, have imposed a cordon sanitaire, refusing coalition with Chega despite its parliamentary strength.
