Lisbon, Oct. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - The Lisbon city council has approved the allocation of €7.24 million for the next edition of the Web Summit conference, a proposal that had been rejected in September but has now been made possible thanks to a new budget amendment.
At an extraordinary meeting of the municipal executive on Wednesday evening, financial support for this year's edition of the Web Summit, which will take place between 10 and 13 November, was approved with votes in favour from the Socialists (PS), the party that in September rejected the PSD/CDS-PP leadership's proposal because it did not agree with the budget amendment suggested for this purpose, considering that it would take funds away from the municipal company Gebalis, responsible for managing the municipal neighbourhoods.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Socialist councillor Pedro Anastácio said that "the PS has no objection" to supporting the Web Summit, explaining that the disagreement was due to the proposed budget amendment, which is now different and "does not take money away from Gebalis", so "it no longer deserves this political censure".
In September, the opposition in the Lisbon city council blocked a budget amendment to finance the Web Summit, justifying their vote against it with the diversion of funds allocated to housing, an argument that the PSD/CDS-PP leadership said was "totally false".
Following the approval of the new proposal, socialist Pedro Anastácio criticised the budget management of PSD/CDS-PP, which governs without an absolute majority, stating that support for the Web Summit is a financial commitment made by the municipality and, therefore, the local authority should take precautions in advance regarding the allocation of funds, in order to avoid "unnecessary deadlocks".
The proposal to transfer €7.24 million to the Lisbon Tourism Association for the next edition of the Web Summit conference was approved with votes in favour from the PSD/CDS-PP and PS and votes against from the others, namely the PCP, Livre, BE and Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition).
The PCP stressed that it has "long" expressed its disagreement with the transfer of "substantial municipal resources to this private event", recalling that in the last edition of the Web Summit, in November 2024, €4 million was taken from the public transport operator, Carris, budget to finance the conference, with the favourable vote of the PS councillors.
The Livre Party councillors emphasised that it is not against the Web Summit being held in Lisbon, "not least because it recognises its impact on the city's international profile and technological ecosystem", justifying its vote against support on the grounds that it is "a private, profitable event that charges expensive tickets, attracts global sponsors and benefits directly from very significant revenues of its own".
Cidadãos Por Lisboa stated that, while the mayor, Carlos Moedas (PSD), considers it urgent and essential to support the Web Summit, which is a lucrative commercial event, there is a wide range of organisations that play a fundamental role in the city every day, including in the social area, which "continue to wait" for funding.
In the new proposal, the PSD/CDS-PP leadership stressed that financial support for the Web Summit is the result of a contractual obligation previously assumed and which has bound the local authority of Lisbon for several years, and that its approval is "urgent and cannot be postponed" in order not to jeopardise the holding of this event.
In addition, there are a number of consequences and penalties in the event of non-compliance with the parties' obligations regarding the holding of the event, "which could be financially damaging to the city of Lisbon and cause irreparable reputational damage to the city and the country itself," the proposal reads.
In November 2016, Lisbon hosted the Web Summit conference for the first time, an event that is expected to continue to be held in the Portuguese capital until 2028, according to the agreement reached in November 2018 between the Portuguese Government, the Lisbon city council, Turismo de Portugal, the Lisbon Tourism Association, AICEP Portugal Global, E.P.E, IAPMEI - Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, and CIL - Connected Intelligence Limited (CIL).
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