Friday, 13 November 2026

More than 400 medical residency (internato médico) positions remained unfilled for the training cycle starting in 2027, according to provisional health data. Of the 2,338 available places, junior doctors took up 1,912, leaving 426 vacancies, including 186 unfilled spots in general and family medicine (medicina geral e familiar). The National Association of Medical Students (Associação Nacional de Estudantes de Medicina or ANEM) warned that working conditions must improve to make family and internal medicine appealing to graduates.

President António José Seguro announced he will review video footage of alleged police violence during recent housing demonstrations after meeting with activists from Lisbon, Porto, and the Casa para Viver platform at the Belém Palace (Palácio de Belém). While Seguro declined to promise a veto on planned rental reforms due to unfamiliarity with the final text, he pledged to mobilize all sectors to address the housing crisis.

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said the government remains open to dialogue with housing movement representatives, initially through the Ministry of Housing. Housing campaigners had dismantled an encampment in Lisbon prior to the presidential audience, though an encampment in Porto remained active as activists pressed for rent controls and protested police conduct.

Microsoft announced widespread recovery and increased stability across its 365 cloud services after an outage lasting more than 20 hours disrupted email, Teams, and digital operations worldwide. The company apologized for the downtime and reaffirmed that the disruption was caused by infrastructure traffic overload rather than a cyberattack or artificial intelligence issue.

In Portugal, the Confederation of Portuguese Business (Confederação Empresarial de Portugal or CIP) reported operational disruptions across multiple sectors that forced companies to postpone tasks and rely on phones and faxes. Portugal's National Cybersecurity Centre (Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança or CNCS) monitored the incident and advised organizations to remain alert to phishing and fraud attempts following the disruption.

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has reaffirmed his confidence in Health Minister Ana Paula Martins, acknowledging that 'not everything is going well' while arguing that hospital operations face far more complex pressures than two years ago. His defense comes as the Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda or BE) demanded Martins's resignation following the deaths of two elderly patients waiting for emergency care at Portimão Hospital in the Algarve.

Martins has faced sustained criticism over leadership and oversight within the National Health Service (Serviço Nacional de Saúde or SNS). Public scrutiny previously intensified over her decision to retain José Luís Gaspar as head of the Tâmega and Sousa Local Health Unit (Unidade Local de Saúde or ULS) despite formal corruption charges against him concerning his former tenure as mayor of Amarante, alongside ongoing concerns over hospital emergency room delays.

Around 100 housing activists demonstrated outside the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, protesting against municipal subsidies for the event and its impact on the city's living costs. Web Summit Chief Executive Paddy Cosgrave expressed sympathy with the demonstrators, saying young Portuguese people have faced severe housing burdens and remarking that his only criticism was that protests did not start earlier in the week. The General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses or CGTP) confirmed it will also join an upcoming weekend housing demonstration in Lisbon.

The Public Prosecutor's Office (Procuradoria-Geral da República or PGR) has opened an inquiry into police interventions during housing demonstrations in Lisbon and Porto. The investigation focuses on actions by the Public Security Police (Polícia de Segurança Pública or PSP) during operations on October 15, 20, 25, and November 1, where officers used batons and police dogs to clear encampments. Attorney General Amadeu Guerra confirmed inquiries are active in both major cities.

Portugal's national energy grid operator Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) posted a net profit of €139.3 million for the first nine months of the year, a 34.1% increase compared to the same period last year. The electricity and natural gas network manager attributed the growth to stronger operating performance and a decrease in charges from the extraordinary levy on the energy sector (Contribuição Extraordinária sobre o Sector Energético or CESE).

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro responded sharply to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, saying the alliance leader showed ignorance of Portugal's commitment to Ukraine. During the European Political Community Summit in Dublin, Mark Rutte had suggested Portugal and Spain view the Russian threat from too great a distance. Luís Montenegro also suggested that European Council President António Costa or former European Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso could serve as European negotiators in future talks with Russia.

The International Monetary Fund (Fundo Monetário Internacional or FMI) recommended that Portugal take steps to increase housing supply, revitalise the rental market, and expand social housing to curb rising home prices. Mateusz Szczurek, director of the IMF European Department, noted that housing affordability pressures require significant regulatory work and are not unique to Portugal. The organisation also noted Portugal's positive budgetary performance over the past three years.

The Portuguese government agreed to increase daily travel allowances (ajudas de custo) for public administration workers by 5% starting in November. However, during negotiations with unions including the Public Administration Technical Staff Union (Sindicato dos Quadros Técnicos do Estado or STE), the Ministry of Finance refused to negotiate higher general salary increases for 2027 beyond planned raises of 2.3% to 6.5%. STE president Rosa Sousa confirmed that negotiations on broader per diem reforms will begin in January.

Portuguese electronics retailer Worten was hit by a cyberattack that allowed unauthorized access to customer and service provider data. The company said that the security vulnerability has been corrected, confirming that no passwords, credit card numbers, or financial details were compromised. Worten began contacting affected customers directly while an internal forensic investigation remains underway.

The Technical Budget Support Unit (Unidade Técnica de Apoio Orçamental or UTAO) warned that financial pressures in the National Health Service (Serviço Nacional de Saúde or SNS) could jeopardize the government's projected budget surplus for 2027. UTAO coordinator Sofia Terlica said the planned 0.1% surplus relies heavily on controlling hospital spending and tackling fuel tax evasion. The parliamentary body raised concerns following substantial spending deviations recorded in the healthcare sector throughout the current fiscal year.

Portuguese town halls are relying more heavily on revenue from the municipal property transfer tax (Imposto Municipal sobre as Transmissões Onerosas de Imóveis or IMT) as housing prices rise. Municipalities with high real estate demand, such as Loulé in the Algarve and Grândola in the Alentejo, have seen transaction taxes make up an expanding portion of local municipal budgets. The tax applies to real estate transactions exceeding statutory thresholds, currently set above €108,792 for residential properties.

Portugal expects to collect an additional €14 million per day in taxes and social security contributions in 2027, according to State Budget (Orçamento do Estado) projections. The estimates point to an extra €5.1 billion in annual revenue, driven by economic growth, higher private consumption, wage gains, and inflation. The projected increase comes despite government pledges to reduce overall tax pressure on households and businesses.