Brazil's president lands in Lisbon this morning. Here's what he's actually here to say.

Good morning, Lisbon. It's Tuesday, 21 April. We have 19°C and a light chance of rain this afternoon. Big day.

🌬️ AIR QUALITY: 26 (Good).

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LULA LANDS THIS MORNING. HERE'S WHAT HE'S ACTUALLY HERE TO SAY.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrives in Lisbon this morning, flying in from Hannover where Brazil was the official partner country at the Hannover Messe trade fair. His first meeting is with Prime Minister Montenegro at Palácio de São Bento. His second is with President Seguro at Palácio de Belém. It is the first time the two heads of state have met in person.

The official agenda is polite: aeronautics cooperation, science and technology, bilateral trade, peace and international security. The real agenda is harder.

Immigration and the fight against xenophobia are confirmed topics for both meetings. The background to that confirmation is worth understanding. There are 484,596 Brazilians registered as legal residents in Portugal, making them by far the largest single immigrant community in the country. When undocumented residents and dual nationals are included, that number exceeds half a million. They make up roughly a third of all foreign residents in Portugal, contributing around €1.4 billion to Social Security in 2024 while receiving a fraction of that back in benefits.

Before Lula left Brazil, the association Casa do Brasil sent him an open letter asking him to raise three things directly with the Portuguese government: the failures of Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) and the backlog of unprocessed cases, the hardening of Portugal's immigration policy under the current government, and a worsening climate of intolerance and discrimination against Brazilians. The letter asked Lula not just to raise these concerns but to demand effective measures in response.

The Beatriz case, reported in Saturday's newsletter, is not named in the letter. But it is exactly what the letter describes. AIMA issued a deportation order to a nine-year-old girl who has lived in the Algarve since she was eight months old. Her parents have permanent residence permits and stable jobs. The order was an administrative error. AIMA cancelled it after it became public. The question the letter is really asking is how many cases like Beatriz's do not become public.

Today Lula will sit across from Seguro and Montenegro. Immigration, xenophobia, and the Brazilian community's experience of Portugal are confirmed items on the table. What comes out of those meetings will matter.

Bottom line: This is not a ceremonial visit. There are half a million Brazilians living in Portugal, and their political weight has just walked into Palácio de São Bento.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Citizenship law update. The deadline everyone was watching has already passed. President Seguro referred the revised nationality law to the Constitutional Court on 17 April, following a formal request from the Socialist Party. The law is now suspended while the Court reviews whether the new residency requirements and stricter naturalisation rules are constitutionally sound. The current five-year citizenship pathway remains in place throughout that review. Nothing changes for now, and any change to the residency requirement is unlikely before late 2026 at the earliest.

TAP sale enters its next phase. Parpública, the state holding company managing the TAP privatisation, has until around 2 May to deliver its assessment of the non-binding bids from Air France-KLM and Lufthansa to the government. The council of ministers will then select which bidders move to the binding offer stage, with firm proposals expected around July and a final decision in the second half of 2026. IAG, owner of British Airways and Iberia, withdrew from the process in early April. The choice between the two remaining bidders has implications beyond price: TAP is a Star Alliance member, as is Lufthansa, while Air France-KLM operates within SkyTeam. A successful Air France-KLM bid would likely require TAP to switch alliances, affecting codeshares and frequent flyer programmes.

Room rents still rising. Shared housing rents in Portugal rose 8% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, according to Idealista. Lisbon remains the most expensive market in the country, with rooms averaging €550 a month, up 10% on the year before. The report notes the pressure has shifted from students to young professionals and single adults who simply cannot afford to rent alone. One small sign of stabilisation: rents dipped 1% quarter on quarter, suggesting the market may be reaching what people can actually pay.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

TRICKY'S (CAIS DO SODRÉ)

Rua da Boavista runs between Santos and Cais do Sodré, and Tricky's sits on it in a way that feels deliberate. Not quite central enough to be touristy, not so far out that you need a reason to go. Chef João Magalhães Correia runs an open kitchen from a counter you can sit at if you book right, and the menu moves confidently between things that sound Portuguese and things that plainly are not. Octopus with chickpeas. Tortellini with Jerusalem artichokes. Beef tongue with fermented black bean jam. The Infatuation called it the new international Lisbon, where people from all over the world came for a trip, fell in love with the city, and never left. That is about right.

The natural wine list is taken seriously, the cocktails are good, and the music is described by multiple reviewers as cheesy in a way that you will actually enjoy. The vibe is relaxed without being indifferent, which in Lisbon is harder to pull off than it sounds.

→ Decide for yourself if €45 a head is worth it — the food does look good ←

Insider tip: Book ahead, the kitchen counter seats go first.

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See you tomorrow morning.