The sessions are being held until Tuesday under the theme ‘Transforming Portugal’, featuring former Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes, ex-minister and candidate for the Porto city hall presidency Pedro Duarte, and Cardinal Américo Aguiar, closing with speeches by PSD leader and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.
Before the formal opening session, deputies conducted two morning visits: to the Évora 2027 Association – European Capital of Culture and the future Central Hospital of Alentejo, set to be completed by late 2026 or early 2027.
The opening, after lunch, includes a message from CDS-PP President Nuno Melo and speeches by the parliamentary leaders of the two pre-electoral coalition AD parties: social democrat Hugo Soares and Christian democrat Paulo Núncio.
This follows with an address by the Bishop of Setúbal, Cardinal Américo Aguiar, under the theme ‘Portugal leaves no one behind’. Cardinal Aguiar was a member of the parish assembly of Leça do Balio and the municipal assembly of Matosinhos from 1993 to 1995, elected on a PS list led by Narciso Miranda. He later left politics to enter the seminary.
The final panel of the afternoon, themed ‘Portugal in Action’, features the president of Banco de Fomento, José Gonçalo Regalado, the new president of AICEP (Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade), Madalena Oliveira e Silva, and the president of the Deposit and Refund System of Portugal, Leonardo Mathias.
In the evening, the dinner guest will be presidential candidate Luís Marques Mendes, who has already received PSD’s endorsement for the January elections, whereas CDS-PP has yet to declare its stance.
On Tuesday, the panel will discuss ‘Local Power and State Reform’, featuring former Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes, now the mayor of Figueira da Foz and an independent candidate supported by PSD, and Pedro Duarte, former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the first PSD/CDS-PP government of Luís Montenegro and a candidate for Porto City Hall.
The parliamentary sessions conclude at Tuesday’s lunchtime with speeches from the parliamentary leaders of PSD and CDS-PP and Luís Montenegro.
One key objective of these sessions is to prepare for the ‘state of the nation’ debate, the last political discussion with the prime minister’s participation before the summer parliamentary recess, scheduled for Thursday.
These are the PSD’s first parliamentary sessions since the start of the XVII legislature. In the early legislative elections of May 18, the AD coalition (PSD/CDS-PP) won again without an absolute majority, electing 91 out of 230 deputies (11 more than last year), with 89 from PSD and two from CDS-PP.
Chega has become the second-largest parliamentary force with 60 deputies, followed by PS with 58, IL with nine, Livre with six, PCP with three, and BE, PAN, and JPP with one each.
