At an extraordinary meeting of the municipal executive, financial support for this year's Web Summit, which will take place from November 10th to 13th, was approved with votes in favour of the Socialist Party (PS). The party, which in September rejected the PSD/CDS-PP leadership's proposal because it disagreed with the proposed budget amendment, believing it would take funds away from the municipal company Gebalis, responsible for managing the city's neighbourhoods.

Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Socialist councillor Pedro Anastácio stated that "the Socialist Party has no objections" to supporting the Web Summit, explaining that the disagreement was due to the proposed budget amendment, which is now different and "no money is being taken from Gebalis," and therefore "no longer deserves this political censure."

In September, the opposition in the Lisbon City Council blocked a budget amendment to fund the Web Summit, justifying the vote against it by citing the diversion of funds allocated to housing, an argument that the PSD/CDS-PP leadership said was "completely false."

Criticism

Following the approval of the new proposal, Socialist Pedro Anastácio criticized the budget management of the 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 municipality should have previously planned this allocation of funds to avoid "unnecessary impasses."

The proposed transfer of €7.24 million to the Lisbon Tourism Association for the next Web Summit conference was made possible with votes in favour from the PSD/CDS-PP and PS parties, and votes against from the other parties, namely the PCP, Livre, BE, and Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition).

The PCP emphasized that it has "long" expressed its disagreement with the transfer of "significant municipal resources to this private event," recalling that in the last Web Summit, in November 2024, "four million euros were taken from the Carris budget to finance the conference, with the favourable vote of the PS councillors."

The Livre council emphasized that it is not against holding the Web Summit in Lisbon, "particularly because it recognizes its impact on the city's international projection and the technological ecosystem," justifying its vote against support by understanding that it is "a private, lucrative event that charges expensive tickets, attracts global sponsors, and directly benefits from very significant revenues of its own."

Citizens for Lisbon stated that, while the mayor, Carlos Moedas (PSD), considers support for the Web Summit, a lucrative commercial event, urgent and essential, there is a wide range of organizations that play fundamental roles in the city every day, including in the social sector, that "continue to wait" for funding.

In the new proposal, the PSD/CDS-PP leadership reinforced that financial support for the Web Summit is the result of a previously assumed contractual obligation that has been binding on the municipality of Lisbon for several years, making its approval "urgent and unavoidable" to avoid jeopardizing the event.

Obligations

Furthermore, there are a set of consequences and penalties for failure by the parties to fulfil their obligations regarding the event, "which could be financially damaging to the municipality of Lisbon and cause irreparable reputational damage to the city and the country itself," the proposal states.

In November 2016, Lisbon hosted, for the first time, the Web Summit conference, an event that should continue to be held in the Portuguese capital until 2028, according to the agreement reached in November 2018, between the Portuguese Government, the municipality of Lisbon, 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).