Latest news and stories about corruption in daily life in Portugal for expats and residents.
CNN Portugal commentator Luís Rosa argues that former Prime Minister José Sócrates' attempts to stall his trial undermine public trust in democracy, while Minister Leitão Amaro emphasizes the need to protect media independence from political interference.
Portugal has been experiencing a continuous decline in its Transparency International index ranking since 2015, now positioned 46th out of 180 countries in 2025. This marks a drop of three places from 2024 and twelve places from 2023, highlighting ongoing challenges in preventing corruption in public office.
In this opinion piece, Arlindo Oliveira highlights that Portugal shows the largest discrepancy between perceived corruption (high) and corruption measured by direct personal experience (low). The article analyses how this perception–experience gap affects public trust and the policy debate, and argues for targeted communication and policy responses to reconcile public perception with measured realities.
