For three days, 977 parish council presidents attended the ANAFRE congress in Portimão, where they elected Social Democrat Francisco Brito as president of the association of Portuguese parishes. Long-standing demands that have been stalled by successive government collapses in the country will finally be resolved, the local official believes. 'At government level, what I know is ...'
We cannot have a territory based solely on the voluntary efforts of the population
Monday, 2 February 2026RSS
Context & Explainers
ANAFRE is the National Association of Parishes (Associação Nacional de Freguesias), which represents Portugal’s parish councils (juntas de freguesia). It lobbies on local-government rules and services; in this story it asked parish councils to check citizen declarations and criticised a law requiring certificates when two parish residents sign a declaration.
