General Daily Briefing: Monday, 19 October 2026
Opening a Bank Account in Portugal
The documents a Portuguese bank asks for, the low-cost basic account every bank must offer, what accounts cost, and what to do if a bank says no.
Good morning. Here is your Monday briefing for 19 October 2026: the day's essential Portugal stories for residents, immigrants and anyone keeping an eye on the country, below this week's featured guide.
- Courts: José Sócrates and Carlos Santos Silva go on trial in Lisbon today for money laundering, in a case split off from Operação Marquês.
- Local government: a judge rules at 14:00 whether the 59 people accused in the Tutti Frutti case over Lisbon parish council contracts go to trial.
- Housing: Público finds the politicians rewriting the rental law declare 1,039 properties between them.
- Heritage: the 1961 liner Funchal, idle in Lisbon since 2015, has been sold for scrap for 802,000 euros.
- Business: AICEP recovered 5.1 million euros in 2025 from the insolvency of the chipmaker Qimonda, 17 years after it failed.
- Wages: after inflation, this year's minimum wage rise to 920 euros is worth about 2.6 percent in real terms, a third less than in 2025.
Sócrates in Court Again
The former prime minister and the businessman Carlos Santos Silva go on trial today at the Tribunal Central Criminal de Lisboa, accused by prosecutors of using accounts held by a Santos Silva company, his wife and Sócrates's driver to move money of illicit origin between 2011 and 2014. The main Operação Marquês corruption trial has been running since July 2025. Both men deny the charges, and Sócrates calls a second, parallel trial "the same absurdity". It is due to run until at least April 2027.
Tutti Frutti Ruling Due
At 14:00 the Tribunal Central de Instrução Criminal reads its decision on whether, and on which charges, the 59 people accused in the Tutti Frutti case go to trial. Prosecutors charged 60 people and companies in February 2025, among them former MPs, parish council presidents and Lisbon councillors from the PSD and the PS, over service contracts allegedly awarded in return for political support. Everyone accused is presumed innocent.
Lawmakers and Their Properties
The 220 members of the Government and the PSD, Chega, IL and CDS-PP parliamentary groups declare 1,039 properties with a taxable value above 55 million euros, and more than 807,000 euros of rental income, according to Público. Owning property is legal. The report raises a conflict-of-interest question as the rental law rewrite sits in committee, and we set out what officeholders must declare and what the MPs' statute requires before they vote.
The Funchal Heads for the Breakers
The liner Funchal, launched in 1961 and laid up in Lisbon since early 2015, has been bought for 802,000 euros by the Turkish ship-breaking group that took the Lisboa and the Porto, Jornal de Negócios reports, and will be broken up at Aliağa. The sale follows the insolvency of her last owner and several failed rescue plans. No departure date has been made public.
Qimonda Money Still Arriving
AICEP's 2025 accounts show it received 5,118,008 euros from the insolvency of Qimonda's Dutch holding company, money owed for subsidies to the Vila do Conde chip plant before the group collapsed in 2009. The agency books it as owed to the state. The German administrator expects further payments when the case closes. The factory itself survived and now belongs to Amkor.
What the Minimum Wage Rise Is Worth
The minimum wage rose 5.7 percent to 920 euros in January. On the Bank of Portugal's 3.1 percent inflation forecast, the real rise is about 2.6 percent, down from 3.8 percent in 2025. The 970 euros planned for 2027 would add about 3 percent in real terms. Public sector unions meet the Government today for a second round of pay talks.
Also published since yesterday's briefing
- The Porto Brief, Week of 18 October 2026: A Week of Protest on Praça D. João I, the Council Pays for Its Own Health Centres, and FC Porto Lose Late in Seville Read →
- Vouzela Reaches Maximum Rural Fire Danger on Sunday and 48 More Municipalities Sit at Very High, Bringing Back Bans on Burning, Fireworks and Brushcutters Read →
- Talgo Will Pitch Trains That Switch Between Iberian and European Gauge in Its Bid for CP's 504 Million Euro Lisbon to Porto High-Speed Order, Though the Tender Does Not Ask for It Read →
- Portugal's Government Lets the June Deadline for a National Menopause Strategy Pass, and Three Groups Find It Missing From the 2027 Budget Too Read →
- UN Biodiversity Summit Gets Under Way in Yerevan With Just One of 23 Nature Targets in the Top Band, as Zero Presses Portugal on Restoration Money Read →
- More Than Half of Portugal's New HIV Diagnoses Come Late, as School Health Assemblies Bring Sexual Health Lessons to 1,000 Pupils: Where to Get Tested Read →
- Lisbon Researchers Identify Tiny Antibody Fragments That Halt the Clumping of Alzheimer-Linked Tau Protein in Lab Cells, Though It Is Not a Treatment Read →
- Nine Heatwaves Since February Give Mainland Portugal a New Yearly Record, and 98 Heatwave Days Top 2009's 97 Read →
- A Cyberattack Shuts Ovar Council's Public Services Until Wednesday, and the Town Hall Suspends Administrative Deadlines Read →
- Braga Scientists Are Building a Menstrual Blood Test for Endometriosis, With the First Study in Patients Planned for 2028 Read →
- School Support Staff Strike Across Portugal Today With No Minimum Service: How to Check Your Child's School, and Whether You Can Miss Work Read →
- Appeal Judges Tell AIMA a Schengen Alert Alone Is No Reason to Refuse a Residence Permit, but Their Own Court Is Split Read →
- Porto Puts Five Public Defibrillators on Its Streets and Will Train Neighbours to Use Them: Where They Are, and What to Do if Someone Collapses Read →
- A Man Under a French Expulsion Order Is Arrested in Lisbon Over a Sham Marriage, a Crime Punished by Up to Five Years in Prison Read →
