Montenegro wants the state to buy into banks, energy, and airports. He announced a sovereign wealth fund.

Montenegro announced Portugal's first sovereign wealth fund over the weekend. The state wants to buy into energy, banks, telecoms, and airports. It's Tuesday, 23 June. Twenty-seven degrees. Portugal play Uzbekistan at 6pm tonight. Here's what you need to know.

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MONTENEGRO ANNOUNCED PORTUGAL'S FIRST SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND. THE STATE WANTS TO BUY INTO ENERGY, BANKS, AND AIRPORTS.

At the PSD Congress in Anadia on Sunday, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro announced plans to create a Portuguese sovereign wealth fund (Fundo Soberano) that would allow the state to take equity stakes in companies it considers strategically important. Energy, banking, telecommunications, and airport infrastructure are all on the table.

Montenegro described it as "an instrument of autonomy and state intervention in strategic sectors" and a savings vehicle for future generations. If airport concession holders fail to meet their obligations, the state could step in through the fund. If banking consolidation threatens Portuguese control, the fund could intervene. The ambition is broad: a permanent state investment vehicle with the power to buy into the private sector.

No details were provided on the fund's size, financing model, or implementation timeline. Montenegro said the fund would consolidate existing state shareholdings and allow new investments, but the mechanics of how it would be capitalised, governed, and held accountable remain entirely unspecified.

The political reaction was immediate. Iniciativa Liberal leader Amorim Lopes said: "I confess I wondered whether I was listening to Pedro Nuno Santos or Luís Montenegro. The idea of the state as a shareholder has already been tried. We are still paying for it." The reference to TAP, which the government is still trying to partially reprivatise after years of state ownership, was unmistakable.

For expats and business owners in Portugal, the proposal matters because it signals the direction of economic policy. A centre-right government proposing state equity stakes in private companies is not what most observers expected from Montenegro. Whether this represents pragmatic sovereignty protection (keeping strategic infrastructure in Portuguese hands) or a return to state interventionism (the model Portugal spent two decades trying to leave behind) depends on who you ask.

Sovereign wealth funds work in Norway (oil revenue), Singapore (trade surpluses), and the Gulf states (hydrocarbons). Portugal has none of these. What it has is three consecutive budget surpluses and a prime minister looking for a legacy project. Whether a country with a GDP of €280 billion can sustain a meaningful sovereign fund without oil revenues is the question nobody at the PSD Congress asked.

Bottom line: Montenegro wants the state to own pieces of Portugal's most important companies. The fund has no budget, no timeline, and no governance structure. It has a name and a speech. What comes next determines whether this is policy or politics.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Hundreds marched through central Lisbon this weekend protesting the suspended sentence for the officer who shot Odair Moniz. The PSP officer was convicted of shooting dead the Cape Verdean chef but received a suspended sentence. The court ruled the use of his Glock service weapon was "disproportionate" but called it a "genuine instinctive act of defence." The victim's family receives €90,000. The march through central Lisbon reflects a community that sees the verdict as accountability without consequence.

Three massive solar farms near Évora could have a "catastrophic" impact on its UNESCO heritage setting. Plans to install large-scale solar plants on land north of Évora have triggered warnings from heritage groups. Portugal needs renewable energy. Portugal also needs to protect one of its most important UNESCO sites. The two are now in direct conflict, and the precedent this sets will shape planning decisions across the country.

Organised theft rings are stealing tonnes of oranges from Algarve farms. Several citrus producers in Silves are reporting sharp increases in orange thefts, with some claiming losses of several tonnes worth tens of thousands of euros. The thefts appear coordinated, not opportunistic. Portugal is the EU's fourth-largest citrus producer. Someone is stealing the harvest at industrial scale.

📚 IMMIGRATION CORNER WITH IMIGRATA

An immigration and residency update every Tuesday this month from the team at Imigrata.

Your AIMA Case is Stuck. Every Deadline Has Passed. Here’s What to Do.

If AIMA is ignoring you, your case hasn't moved, and the legal deadlines are long gone, doing nothing is the worst option. Like everything in Portugal, unsticking a case requires patience mixed with systematic pressure.

But don't be afraid to push. You won't be penalised or blacklisted for complaining. In fact, getting loud is exactly how most cases get saved from the bottom of the pile. Here is your step-by-step action plan to get things moving.

1. File official, tracked complaints: Start by sending an official email notification. If you have a specific case handler's direct email, use it—it is infinitely more effective than the general inbox. Otherwise, send your message to [email protected] and submit a ticket via AIMA's website. This creates an official legal paper trail that can support you in court later.

2. Visit AIMA in person (The "Yellow Book" trick): If emails go unanswered, go to an AIMA office and demand the Livro de Reclamações (the physical Yellow Book). By Portuguese law, public institutions must respond to these complaints within 15 working days. Write in Portuguese if you can, be firm, and take a photo of your entry before you leave.

3. Send a registered letter to headquarters: Still nothing? Send a physical, registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt (Carta Registada com Aviso de Receção) directly to AIMA's headquarters. They are legally required to sign for it and respond within 15 days, leaving them with zero excuses.

4. Look beyond AIMA: Two outside channels can apply major pressure. The Ombudsman (Provedor de Justiça) is highly effective at flagging excessive administrative delays or failure to issue decisions. For systemic technical issues (like portal crashes or booking blocks), complain to AMA (the Agency for Modernising Administration) at [email protected].

5. The final resort: File a lawsuit: If all else fails, sue. It sounds incredibly dramatic, but in Portugal, it isn't. Filing a subpoena for the protection of rights is the single most effective way to force AIMA to look at your file. It is far less expensive than most people assume, and AIMA won't take it personally. A lawyer simply files a claim they legally cannot ignore, with typical court timelines running 3 to 6 months for resolution.

Imigrata handles all residency cases: articles, D-visas, legal actions, family reunification, and more. Offices in Lisbon and Atlanta.

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We only partner with businesses we think genuinely help our community. If this is useful to you, or if you know someone navigating the visa process, every click and every share goes a long way to keeping this newsletter free every morning.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

PHARMÁCIA (SANTA CATARINA)

There is a restaurant inside the Pharmacy Museum building overlooking the Miradouro de Santa Catarina where your water arrives in an old ether bottle, your wine is poured from a measuring cup, and the bill comes in a medicine box. It sounds like a gimmick. It works because the food and the terrace are good enough that the theme becomes decoration rather than distraction.

Pharmácia Felicidade has been operating since 2011, the menu is entirely petiscos, Portuguese tapas designed for the table rather than the individual. The bacalhau assado and the pork cheeks (bochechas de porco) are the dishes reviewers come back for. The tasting menu is the option if you want the kitchen to decide. The cocktails are served in prescription bottles and beakers, and the house "LSD" cocktail has been photographed more often than it's been drunk, though it's good.

The interior is the former hospital building shared with the Museu da Farmácia. Vintage medicine cabinets line the walls, filled with glass drug containers, medicine vials, and apothecary bottles. The wallpaper is printed with pills, molecules, and scissors. Antique laboratory furniture serves as dining tables. The effect is a room that feels like a Victorian pharmacy crossed with a contemporary restaurant, which is exactly what it is.

The garden terrace is the reason most people return. It overlooks the Miradouro de Santa Catarina and the Tagus, with the south bank stretching out below. On a warm Tuesday evening before a World Cup match, a cocktail from a prescription bottle on this terrace is not a bad way to start the night.

TheFork rates it 8.8/10. Dog-friendly. Somethings to keep in mind, it can be hard to find (follow signs to the Museu da Farmácia, the restaurant entrance is through the same building). Prices are above neighbourhood average (mains €18-28).

The concept is fun the first time but the food and terrace are what might justify a second visit. Some reviewers found dishes heavy on garlic or inconsistent. Service slows when the room fills. And they occasionally book the space for private events without warning individual reservations, so call ahead.

→ A restaurant inside a pharmacy museum. Cocktails in prescription bottles. A terrace above the Tagus. Find them here ←

Santa Catarina, inside the Museu da Farmácia building, on Rua Marechal Saldanha.

Insider tip: Book via TheFork for a terrace table. Arrive at 5pm for drinks with the river below. Order two or three petiscos to share and whatever cocktail the waiter recommends. The pharmacy gimmick is entertaining but the view is worth staying for.

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See you tomorrow morning.