2018 in Portugal

Incumbents

• President: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
• Prime Minister: António Costa

  Events

January to March

• 14 January:
• *Eight people are killed and a further 35 are injured in a fire at a community centre in the town of Vila Nova da Rainha in Tondela.
• *Rui Rio is elected as the leader of the Social Democratic Party with 54% of the party members' vote, defeating rival candidate and former Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes.
• *The Instituto Nacional de Estatística estimates that the country's GDP growth in 2017 was 2.7%, the highest annual increase since 2000.
• 15 January – An earthquake with a local magnitude of 4.9 occurs in Arraiolos in the Evora District. Although widely felt across central and southern Portugal, no damage or injuries are reported.
• 24 January – Prime Minister António Costa announces that Google will open a support centre in Oeiras for its European, African, and Middle Eastern regions later in the year, a move that is expected to create 500 high-skilled technology jobs.
• 29 January – A 67-year old man is shot and killed at a school in Nazaré following a dispute between the family members of two students.
• 1 February – The largest in a series of aftershocks following the earthquake of 15 January occurs in Arraiolos with a local magnitude of 3.1. Unlike the earlier earthquake, its effects are largely confined to Arraiolos area.
• 25 March – Approximately 67,500 trees are planted by 3,000 volunteers in Leiria, marking the start of a reforestation project to repair a 13th century pine forest badly affected by wildfires in October 2017.

  April to June

• 13 April – MPs approve a law allowing individuals to change their gender on legal documents from the age of sixteen without the need of a medical report.
• 5 May – F.C. Porto win the 2017–18 Primeira Liga after their title rivals S.L. Benfica and Sporting Lisbon draw 0–0, leaving Porto with an unassaible points lead with two games remaining. It is the club's first championship for five years.
• 10 May – President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa vetoes the law passed by MPs on 13 April allowing individuals to change their gender from the age sixteen without a medical report.
• 12 May – Lisbon hosts the final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, in which Israel's Netta Barzilai is voted as the winner.
• 15 May – Approximately 50 masked intruders gain access the training centre of football club Sporting Lisbon, inflicting minor injuries to players and staff and causing minor damage to facilities.
• 20 May – Belgium's Thierry Neuville wins the 2018 Rally de Portugal.
• 29 May – MPs vote 115–110 against a bill legalising the voluntary use of euthanasia for consenting terminally-ill patients.
• 15 June – MPs pass a bill legalising the use of prescription drugs containing marijuana.
• 30 June – Portugal are eliminated from the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the round of 16 following a 2–1 loss to Uruguay at Sochi's Fisht Olympic Stadium.

  July to December

• 6 July – A bid by the People-Animals-Nature's sole MP to ban bullfighting is opposed in the Assembly by 178 votes to 31.
• 3–4 August – Warm air from the Sahara causes a heat wave in which temperatures rise above 40°C. A national high of 45.9°C is set at Alcácer do Sal near Setúbal on 3 August, a day that sees sixteen weather stations across the country set new local temperature records. The warm and dry conditions lead to an outbreak of wildfires, with 700 firefighters attending a blaze close to Monchique in the Algarve affecting over of forest.
• 24 September – Archaeologists announce the discovery of a 400-year old shipwreck off the coast of Cascais thought to have been involved in the trading of spices between Europe and India. Artefacts recovered include a bronze cannon bearing the Portuguese coat of arms and Chinese porcelain dating to the time of the Wanli Emperor.

  October to December

• 12 October – Minister of National Defence José Alberto Azeredo Lopes resigns amid a political scandal over the theft of military weapons from an arms depot in Tancos in June 2017.
• 13 October – Storm Leslie passes over north and central Portugal, injuring 27 people and leaving 300,000 homes without power. Hurricane-strength winds of up to uproot trees and cause damage and disruption across Lisbon and the districts of Leiria and Coimbra. The districts of Porto, Aveiro, and Viseu to the north also affected.
• 14 October – Prime Minister António Costa undertakes the largest major cabinet reshuffle of his premiership, moving Pedro Siza Vieira to the Ministry of Economy and appointing Graca Maria da Fonseca and Marta Temido as Ministers of Culture and Health respectively. Azeredo Lopes, who resigned from his post as the Ministry of National Defence two days earlier, is replaced by Joao Gomes Cravinho.
• 14 December – Twenty-eight passengers and pedestrians are injured when a tram derails in Lisbon.

  Deaths

January to June

• 2 January – Guida Maria, actress.
• 16 January – Madalena Iglésias, actress and singer.
• 27 January – Edmundo Pedro, politician and political prisoner, member of the Assembly of the Republic.
• 20 March – João Calvão da Silva, politician.
• 27 March – António dos Santos, Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Guarda.
• 6 April – Acácio Pereira Magro, politician, economist and academic.
• 8 April – António Barros, footballer.
• 7 May – António Saraiva, footballer.
• 21 May – António Arnault, poet, fiction writer, essayist, lawyer, and politician.
• 22 May – Júlio Pomar, painter.

  July to December

• 12 July – Laura Soveral, actress.
• 17 July – João Semedo, pulmonologist and politician.
• 29 July – António José Rafael, Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Bragança-Miranda.
• 1 August – Celeste Rodrigues, fado singer.
• 18 August – Pedro Queiroz Pereira, businessman.
• 25 September – Helena Almeida, photographer and painter.
• 29 September – Alves Barbosa, road cyclist.
• 3 November – Maria Guinot, singer.