PSD Blocks Parliament From Grilling Centeno Over Bank of Portugal's €192 Million Entrecampos Headquarters

Portugal's governing PSD party has used a potestative motion to postpone two parliamentary requests that would have summoned Bank of Portugal Governor Mário Centeno to answer questions about the central bank's controversial new headquarters in Entrecampos, Lisbon.

The votes, originally scheduled for Wednesday 15 April at the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Commission (COFAP), were pushed to next week's meeting. Both the CDS-PP and Chega had filed separate requests to hear Centeno in person on the acquisition of the building from Fidelidade. PS and Chega accepted the delay on the CDS request, while the PSD forced through the postponement on the Chega motion without needing other parties' consent.

A €192 Million Purchase — With More to Come

The central bank committed in May 2025 to buy two "in the rough" office buildings and 168 parking spaces on the site of the former Feira Popular in Entrecampos for €191.99 million, paying a down payment of €57.5 million. The seller is the insurance company Fidelidade, part of the Fosun-backed EntreCampos development consortium.

The headline price does not include finishing, interior fit-out, flooring, paint or technical installations. The Bank of Portugal itself now estimates the total investment, including structural works and other costs, at around €235 million. Earlier audits have projected that the final bill — once furnishings and operational costs are added — could reach €280 million. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2027.

Centeno, asked last September how much the project would ultimately cost, replied that the final price "belongs to God" — a line that has since been widely quoted by opposition parties as emblematic of a procurement process they view as lacking transparency.

The "Red Flag" Audits

The deal has been under scrutiny since 2025. The Ministry of Finance, under Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, ordered an audit by the Inspectorate-General of Finance (IGF) in July 2025, and the Court of Auditors has signalled it is considering a parallel review. Reporting by Portuguese media outlets has highlighted a series of "high-risk red flags", including the fact that the Bank of Portugal agreed to buy structurally incomplete buildings without a fully secured construction licence.

The Ministry of Finance reportedly only received a copy of the purchase contract "after two insistences", despite the Bank of Portugal's public accounts falling within the ministry's oversight remit on procedural grounds.

Political Tempo

For the opposition, the Bank of Portugal building has become a stand-in for broader concerns about Centeno's governance — coming on top of earlier controversies over his early departure from the bank and the pension arrangements that followed. Chega leader André Ventura and the CDS-PP both want Centeno on the parliamentary record before the IGF audit lands.

PSD insists the delay is procedural, arguing it wants to study the implications of the motions in coordination with other committee work — including a PS resolution on VAT treatment for startups under the PRR recovery plan, which was also pushed back.

What This Means for Expats

The Bank of Portugal oversees financial stability, supervises the banking sector and is the country's voice at the European Central Bank. Controversies over how it spends its own operating budget feed into broader debates about institutional credibility at a moment when Portuguese households are dealing with rising Euribor-linked mortgage costs, an energy-price crisis and a 2026 budget deficit on a knife edge. For expats holding Portuguese deposits or tracking interest-rate signals out of Lisbon, the political noise around Centeno is worth watching: a weakened governor is a less assertive governor in Frankfurt. The IGF audit result, expected later this year, will be the next major milestone.