Politics 11 August 2026

The PSD summer school returns to Castelo de Vide, and nuclear power is on the timetable

Portugal's governing party runs its 22nd summer university from 24 to 30 August, with Paulo Portas taking the Saturday morning slot and Luís Montenegro closing the week.

Every August since 2003, a hill town of barely three thousand people in the Alto Alentejo hosts a sizeable chunk of the Portuguese centre-right for a week. Castelo de Vide does it again from 24 to 30 August, for the 22nd edition of the PSD’s summer university.

The format has not changed much. Around a hundred selected young people from across the country get a week of classes, dinner-conferences, workshops and a mock parliamentary session. It is run jointly by the PSD, its youth wing JSD, the Instituto Francisco Sá Carneiro and the European People’s Party, and this is the first edition under a new JSD leader who happens to come from the region.

Who is on the bill

The name that drew attention is Paulo Portas, booked for the Saturday morning. The former CDS leader and deputy prime minister remains one of the most in-demand speakers on this circuit.

On Friday 28 August, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes shares a panel with minister Pedro Duarte under a title that captures the moment rather well: “Algorithms: democracy weakened?”. On the 27th, scientist and Council of State member Maria do Carmo Fonseca debates former MP José Eduardo Martins on nuclear energy in Portugal, which is probably the most concrete subject of the whole week. Portugal has never had a nuclear plant, and whether it should is back on the European agenda under cost and decarbonisation pressure.

Socialist João Soares also appears on the programme, a reminder that the school still books speakers from the other side of the aisle.

Luís Montenegro, PSD leader and prime minister, closes the week, as he usually does. The full programme is published by the party.

Why it matters beyond Castelo de Vide

These August weeks rarely make immediate news, but they do trail themes. Arguments get test-driven here before they turn up in the chamber, the same chamber where in July the government and the opposition went at each other over the State of the Nation. If September’s agenda is being drafted anywhere, part of it is being drafted here.

By Tomás Vasconcelos

Photo: Patriarcado de Lisboa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

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