2019 in Portugal

Incumbents

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

  Events

January to March

• 16 January:
• *Police intercept 430 kilograms of cocaine hidden within a shipment of bananas in Leixões after receiving a tip-off from the Spanish authorities. The seized cocaine was en route to Spain from Latin America and is estimated to have a street value of approximately €15 million.
• *A Portuguese man, named as Rui Pinto by Portuguese media, is detained in Hungary on charges of extortion after hacking the emails of F.C. Porto, S.L. Benfica, and Sporting Lisbon. Details from the hacked emails later appear on the website Football Leaks. Pinto's lawyers later confirm his identity as the arrested man.
• 4 February – Portugal joins fifteen other European governments in recognising Juan Guaido as the acting president of Venezuela in the country's leadership dispute.
• 14 February – Figures released by the Instituto Nacional de Estatística show that the number of tourists visiting Portugal in 2018 was the highest on record at 12.8 million.
• 7 March – In response to the deaths of twelve women to domestic violence since the beginning of the year, the highest number in Portugal for a decade, a national day of mourning is held with flags being flown at half-mast and the Assembly observing a minute's silence.
• 8 March – Between 6,000 and 10,000 people march in Lisbon demanding improvements in pay and working conditions for nurses.
• 28–29 March – A series of wildfires break out in the north of the country after a spell of unseasonably warm and dry weather. There are no reports of any injuries.

  April to June

• 4 April – Amid increasing criticism of nepotism within the government, Secretary of State for the Environment Carlos Martins resigns after the appointment of his cousin as his assistant becomes public.
• 15–18 April – Drivers of fuel-tankers strike over pay and working conditions, agreeing only to a minimum service requirement of delivering supplies to critical infrastructure. Despite government requests motorists form long queues at petrol stations across the country, thousands of which run completely dry. The strike ends on 18 April after the drivers' employers agree to hold talks the following month.
• 17 April – At least 29 people are killed and a further 27 are injured in a bus crash on the island of Madeira.
• 10 May – A bill to financially compensate teachers for a series of wage freezes over the past ten years is opposed by MPs after Prime Minister António Costa threatens to resign his government and call an early general election if passed. Forecast to cost at least €600 million, Costa argues that approval of the bill would have constituted an unacceptable divergence from the government's economic objectives.
• 18 May – Benfica secure the 2018-19 Primeira Liga title with a 4-1 victory over C.D. Santa Clara, becoming Portuguese football league champions for the 37th time.
• 20 May – Eight police officers are found guilty of the kidnapping and assault of six men in Amadora in 2015.
• 26 May – European Parliament election: The Socialist Party wins the highest proportion of the vote with 35.9%, securing nine of Portugal's twenty-one seats in the European Parliament. The Social Democratic Party finishes second with six seats and 23.6% of the vote. The remaining seats are won by the Left Bloc, the Unitary Democratic Coalition, the CDS – People's Party, and People–Animals–Nature. The result is seen as bolstering the chances of Prime Minister António Costa winning an overall majority in October's general election and represents the worst result for the Social Democratic Party in a national election.
• 2 June – Estonia's Ott Tänak wins the 2019 Rally de Portugal.
• 4 June – The police announce the successful dismantling of a human trafficking network in the north of the country after a six-month investigation. Twenty women are rescued from the trafficking ring and eight foreign nationals are arrested.
• 9 June – Portugal win the inaugural UEFA Nations League with a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto.

  July to September

• 7 July – UNESCO announces the addition of the Palace of Mafra and the Bom Jesus do Monte to its list of World Heritage Sites, bringing the total number of sites in Portugal to seventeen.
• 20 July – A series of wildfires break out in the Castelo Branco district, injuring at least 20 people. More than 1,800 firefighters are sent to attempt to contain the outbreak.
• 9 August – In anticipation of a second strike by drivers of fuel-tankers, the government declares an energy crisis to maintain supplies to critical infrastructure such as hospitals and airports. It also announces rationing of petrol and diesel lasting from 10 August until 21 August, restricting motorists to a maximum of 15 litres of fuel.
• 12–16 August – Fuel-tanker drivers strike for the second time this year over pay and working conditions. In their absence police officers and soldiers are drafted in to help maintain supplies to key sectors. Fourteen striking drivers are meanwhile cited by the government for flouting a decree mandating their co-operation in deliveries to hospitals and other critical infrastructure. After five days the fuel-tanker drivers agree to end their strike on 16 August and enter negotiations.
• 11 September – MPs vote to condemn the planned opening of a museum later in the year dedicated to António de Oliveira Salazar, the authoritarian Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968, in Salazar's hometown of Santa Comba Dão.
• 22 September – Madeiran regional election: The Social Democratic Party loses the majority it has held in the Legislative Assembly since 1976 and enters into a coalition with the CDS – People's Party.

  October to December

• 2 October – Hurricane Lorenzo passes over the Azores, severely damaging the main port on Flores and bringing down trees and power lines. There are no reports of any injuries.
• 6 October – Portuguese legislative election: The Socialist Party of Prime Minister António Costa wins 106 seats to remain the largest party in the Assembly, taking 36.7% of votes ahead of the Social Democratic Party on 29.7%. Short by an overall majority of ten seats, Costa announces negotiations to continue his party's alliance with the Left Bloc and the Portuguese Communist Party for another term. Turnout falls to 54.5%, the lowest for a general election since Portugal's return to democracy in 1974.
• 22 October – Obstetrician Artur Carvalho is suspended by the Ordem dos Médicos over claims of negligent conduct after having failed to detect severe fetal abnormalities in a boy born on 7 October in Setúbal. Further cases of similar negligence by Carvalho spanning more than 10 years subsequently emerge, prompting media debates over procedures within the national health care system.
• 13 November – Prime Minister António Costa unveils government plans to raise the monthly minimum wage from €600 to €635 on 1 January 2020 as part of a pledge to reach €750 by 2023.
• 5 December – Government officials confirm that Chinese technology company Huawei will not be prevented from helping to develop the nation's 5G wireless network. The decision comes amid warnings to European nations from United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the risk of Huawei passing critical and confidential data onto the Chinese government.
• 19–20 December – Two people are killed and 50 are made homeless in Porto as Storm Elsa passes over the country, bringing severe rainfall and flooding. The weather causes disruption to ferry services across the Tagus and to train services between Lisbon and Porto, the latter of which are temporarily halted until 22 December.

  Anniversaries

• Sanlúcar de Barrameda 2019–2022 – A series of events being held in Spain and Portugal between 2019 and 2022 commemorating the 500th anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the globe by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano.
• 600th anniversary of the discovery of Madeira Island.

  Deaths

• 14 January – Francisco de Oliveira Dias, politician.
• 24 January – Altino Pinto de Magalhães, military officer and politician, President of the Regional Junta of the Azores .
• 10 February – Fernando Peres, footballer.
• 20 February – Teotónio de Souza, historian.
• 11 April – Dina, singer.
• 3 June – Agustina Bessa-Luís, writer.
• 18 July – André Bradford, politician.
• 15 September – Roberto Leal, singer.
• 3 October – Diogo Freitas do Amaral, politician, acting Prime Minister .
• 18 November – Argentina Santos, fado singer.
• 19 November – José Mário Branco, singer-songwriter and record producer.