Seguro has called the parliamentary parties to individual hearings at Belém Palace on 29 October, the day after the 2027 State Budget vote.
The invitation is the first time since taking office that Seguro has summoned the parties to discuss one specific topic, according to SAPO.
Daily protests against the rental law, which is under discussion in committee, have taken place in Lisbon and Porto.
Portuguese President António José Seguro has summoned the parties with seats in parliament for individual hearings on social cohesion at the Belém Palace on 29 October. A presidency source confirmed the invitation to Lusa on Wednesday, 21 October. The hearings are set for the day after the vote on the 2027 State Budget in Parliament, and the budget debate is scheduled for 27 and 28 October, with its passage secured by the Socialist Party (PS) abstaining.
Seguro has made social cohesion a central theme since taking office, and he has repeatedly asked the parties for consensus against exclusion and for solutions on housing. The presidency has said the meetings will not address the budget itself, according to Observador, but will focus on Belém's concerns about social cohesion. The invitation marks the first time since Seguro took office that he has called the parties to discuss one specific subject, and it is the first time the parties have returned to Belém at his invitation since the initial consultations in March.
Seguro has returned to the theme in several public appearances. He pointed to an Open Presidency session dedicated to the storms and to a speech marking 50 years of the Constitution in Parliament, where he said
“without social cohesion (...) there is no Constitution that can withstand it”
The call comes amid protests that take place every day, mainly over the right to housing and the rental law that is currently under discussion in committee in Parliament. Encampments have been set up in Lisbon and Porto. Public, SAPO and Observador all note that the president's predecessor, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, regularly summoned the parties before the state budget in recent years, while Seguro has chosen not to keep that practice. Seguro's hearings will therefore be a different kind of meeting, held on a social theme rather than a fiscal one.
The hearings are individual meetings, so each party will be heard separately at Belém. Coverage of the sessions will show whether the president's push for consensus on housing and exclusion produces any shared positions among the parties. For now, the dates are fixed and the presidency has not announced an agenda beyond the subject of social cohesion.
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Portuguese President António José Seguro has invited the parliamentary parties to individual hearings on social cohesion at the Belém Palace on 29 October. The meetings come as daily protests over housing continue in Lisbon and Porto.
AI text based on reports by PÚBLICO, Observador, SAPO and other publishers. Published .