Portugal just hit a fuel breaking point

Diesel has never cost more in Portugal, and drivers spent Monday making their anger heard. It's Tuesday, 8 September. Twenty-seven degrees. Air quality: 23 (Good). Here's what you need to know.

🗞️ RECORD FUEL PRICES BRING PROTESTERS ONTO PORTUGAL'S ROADS

Portugal woke on Monday to another fuel price rise, and this time it came with a backlash. Diesel reached the highest price ever recorded in the country, and petrol hit its highest level since the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Drivers responded with protests on roads in and around Lisbon and further south.

In the morning, a mass horn protest built up on the 25 de Abril bridge, the crossing that links Lisbon to Almada on the south bank of the Tagus. Further south, a slow-moving convoy set off towards Galp's refinery in Sines, in the Setúbal district, cars crawling along with Portuguese flags draped over their bonnets, horns sounding, and placards reading "Enough of rising fuel prices" and "Families can't take any more." The protests were organised on WhatsApp and social media, with no fixed finishing time, and ran on past lunchtime.

The rise came despite a government cushion that was already in place. Since April, Portugal has had a standing mechanism that automatically applies a temporary discount on the ISP, the tax on petroleum and energy products, whenever prices jump sharply. That discount capped this week's increase at a further 12 cents a litre for diesel and 9 cents for petrol, and took total state support to around 23 cents a litre on both fuels. Without it, diesel had been on course to rise as much as 15 cents this week and climb toward €2.17. Both fuels had sat almost exactly on the €2 mark on Friday, diesel at €2.019 and petrol at €2.022.

That was not enough to stop the anger. Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro said the measures introduced since the start of the Iran conflict now add up to more than €300 million in support, including ISP cuts, help for professional diesel users, and assistance with bottled gas, and the government is preparing to bring back extraordinary support for agricultural diesel. But the protesters and the opposition Socialists want something bigger than a few cents shaved off the top: a cut to the 23% VAT charged on fuel, the highest rate, toward the 6% some are demanding, and even the abolition of the ISP altogether. Portugal's combined fuel taxes keep its pump prices near the top of the EU table, despite the Sines refinery sitting a short drive from the Atlantic.

There may be movement at the European level too. Portugal has joined Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland and Spain in writing to Ireland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, asking for an extraordinary tax on oil companies' profits to be discussed at the finance ministers' meeting on 18 and 19 September.

Bottom line: diesel has never been more expensive, the government's existing tax cushion softened the rise but did not stop it, and the real fight now is over whether Portugal will do something bigger about how heavily it taxes fuel.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Bernie Ecclestone was detained at a Lisbon-area airfield over an unlicensed shotgun. The former Formula 1 chief executive, now 95, was held on Monday at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais after the airport division of the PSP, the public security police, found a shotgun in his luggage, arriving by private jet from Switzerland, for which he had no permit. He was released hours later. Ecclestone, who divides his time between Switzerland and Portugal, told the Daily Mail he had brought the gun for clay-pigeon shooting and does not travel with documents. The PSP has not issued a formal statement, and it is not yet clear whether he will face charges. It closely echoes a 2022 incident in Brazil, where he was detained over an unlicensed pistol in his luggage and released after paying bail. Portugal has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe, and a permit is required to bring any firearm into the country.

Portugal has secured a €1.5 billion loan to ease its housing crunch. The European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's lending arm, is providing the funds to support the construction and rehabilitation of more than 50,000 affordable and public homes, part of the government's push to add tens of thousands of units by the end of the decade. It is one of the largest single housing-finance agreements in the country's recent history, and it lands in a week when Fitch, the credit agency, again flagged housing as Portugal's central economic vulnerability. Whether the money translates into homes people can actually afford depends, as ever, on how fast they can be built.

The no-confidence motion against the government now has a date. Parliament will debate and vote on Chega's motion this week, the formal culmination of André Ventura's campaign to force out Interior Minister Luís Neves. It is expected to fail, since it would need an absolute majority and the Socialists have distanced themselves, but it guarantees another set-piece confrontation in a parliament already strained by the fuel protests and a minority government under pressure on several fronts at once.

Portuguese With Carla & Friends — If You've Been Meaning to Learn Portuguese, This Is Your Sign

If learning Portuguese has been sitting on your "one day" list for a while, September might be the month to finally do something about it.

It is a particular trap for people who live here. You hear Portuguese every day, you recognise a handful of words, maybe you have tried an app or a class, and it is easy to assume you will simply pick it up eventually. Then a real conversation starts and you realise understanding and speaking are two very different things.

That is the gap The Journey, from Portuguese With Carla & Friends, is built to close. Instead of endless vocabulary lists and grammar drills, it gives you meaningful exposure to real European Portuguese through stories, conversations, repetition and context, so you gradually build the instinct to understand and use the language in real life rather than just study it.

It tends to shift how people feel about their own ability:

"I could keep a very simple conversation." — Leanne

"It's the best thing to hear local Portuguese people complimenting on my pronunciation and comprehension. :) Muito obrigada!" — Hajni

For September, the annual Journey subscription is €299 instead of €349. And there is nothing quite like paying for a full year up front to turn "I really should" into "I actually am." If a bit of commitment is what you have been missing, September is a good time to begin.

→ Start The Journey for €299

We only partner with businesses we think genuinely help our community. If this is useful to you, or if you know someone who has been meaning to learn Portuguese for a while now, every click and every share goes a long way to keeping this newsletter free every morning.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

TACO LOCOO (MARQUÊS DE POMBAL)

Some days it does not matter where you are from or where you are: it is Taco Tuesday and a margarita sounds about right. There is one catch with this particular spot, though, Tuesday is the single day of the week it is closed, so this one is a plan for tomorrow rather than tonight.

Taco Locoo, on Rua do Conde de Redondo near Marquês de Pombal, is a small Mexican restaurant and cocktail bar run by a couple: chef Zenesh Bhattarai, who has spent 16 years cooking Mexican food, and manager Sushma Rimal. The room is bright and colourful, decorated in the spirit of Frida Kahlo, with a bit of outdoor seating for the warm evenings.

The food is the traditional spread done properly: tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, nachos and a well-liked chimichanga, with vegetarian options across the menu. Reviewers repeatedly call the burritos and fajitas some of the best in the city, and the tequila and margarita list is a cut above what you usually find. Dishes run around €8 to €15, cocktails from €7.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: go for the margarita on the rocks with salt rather than the frozen version, and if you are ordering tacos, the al pastor is the one to start with. Book ahead at the weekend, the room seats about 50 and fills fast.

📅 WHAT'S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

Reach Lisbon's English-speaking community, every morning. Advertise.