Events in the year 2019 in Portugal.
Incumbents
President: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Prime Minister: António Costa (Socialist)
Events
January
8 January – Funding worth €1.15 billion for both an expansion of Lisbon Airport and the construction of a second airport in Montijo is agreed to by the government and French company Vinci SGEF.PA. The plans for the new airport, which seek to increase capacity for the growing tourism industry, are opposed by environmental campaigners over the ecological value of the proposed Montijo site. 10 January – A programme investing €10 billion into infrastructure works by 2030 is approved by the government. Transport projects will receive a majority of the funding with €6 billion earmarked for plans such as improvements to the Lisbon–Porto railway link. 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 football clubs 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.
February
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 (INE) show that the number of tourists visiting Portugal in 2018 was the highest on record at 12.8 million.
March
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. 26 March – Data from the INE reveals that the government's budget deficit fell to 0.5% of gross domestic product in 2018, the lowest recorded since the Carnation Revolution in 1974. 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
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 deliver supplies to critical infrastructure as part of a legal minimum service requirement. 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. 24 April – Shareholders of utilities company Energias de Portugal, the largest business in the country, reject a €9 billion buy-out bid by the Chinese energy company China Three Gorges.