Portuguese councillors concerned about civic activities

The meeting of the Permanent Council of the Council of Portuguese Communities next week will have as its fundamental axes civic participation, civil and business associations and the teaching of the Portuguese language, councilor Flávio Martins announced to Lusa.

According to the president of the Council of Portuguese Communities, Flávio Martins, the civic participation of the communities “must be reviewed”, so that the electoral process does not “lose its security, but is diversified”, that is, “so that there can be several voting methods”, such as improving voting by post, but also in person and moving towards a pilot test of electronic voting.

On March 24, the Regional Council of Portuguese Communities in Europe considered that remote electronic voting would be possible in the next presidential elections, in 2026, defending the creation of a working group in the Assembly of the Republic to develop this tool.

When asked about this possibility – especially because the Permanent Council will meet separately with the candidates for the presidency of the Portuguese Republic, António José Seguro, Henrique Gouveia e Melo and Luís Marques Mendes – he said he did not think this could be a reality.

“I believe that for this election in January [2026] the only method will be maintained, which is in person. I think there is no interest [from the Assembly of the Republic] nor time to make changes [to the electoral law]”, lamented the advisor for the Portuguese communities elected by Brazil.

The first axis of concerns also includes the requirement to improve the consular network, whose operation has been the subject of several complaints, he said.

“The second axis is the associative movement in communities, because we understand that it is an aggregating point”, he continued.

According to the representative of the Portuguese communities, this issue does not only involve “social or cultural” associations, but also business and industrial associations, particularly those related to Portuguese chambers of commerce abroad.

For the advisor, people linked to these business areas “are also points of connection between companies abroad and Portuguese companies. In other words, it serves both so that these companies abroad can send or offer their products or services to Portugal, and so that companies based in Portugal can establish business with these countries or with these other communities”.

The third point to be discussed will be the teaching of Portuguese abroad, which is something that “needs to be seen and monitored with great care, great interest, which contributes to issues such as culture and the emotional connection to Portugal, especially of people of Portuguese descent”.

Flávio Martins recalled that the exemption from charging tuition fees abroad for teaching the Portuguese language was approved for this year's budget.

“What we want is precisely this, to ensure that the current number of students learning Portuguese abroad, which is much lower than it was a few years ago, can increase again,” he declared, adding that this teaching has been more focused on Portuguese as a Foreign Language.

“We understand, differently from what the last governments have understood, not the current one, that there is always a preference for Portuguese as a foreign language abroad, but for us it is also necessary to have Portuguese as a mother tongue, so that people of Portuguese descent not only learn Portuguese, but establish some cultural, historical and emotional bond with Portugal”, he declared.

The annual report on the council's activities will also be presented, which will be “delivered to the various authorities”, he stressed.

The representative highlighted that they will meet with other diaspora councils – Madeira and Azores – and that they intend to establish “a cooperation protocol”.

The Permanent Council will meet from Monday to Wednesday in the Sala dos Monges of the Assembly of the Republic.