Lisbon’s hotly-contested “best pastel de nata” award has been settled for this year and sees 25-year-old pastry chef Francisco Duarte walking off with all the glory.

Whipping up the traditional ‘egg custard tarts’ for pastelaria O Pãozinho das Marias, he beat off stiff competition and ensured that his bosses’ business in the seaside town of Ericeira is now brisker than ever. Even better, the prized “pasteis” cost just €1 each.

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Article by kind permission of Portugal Resident

A specially-targeted five-day strike by airport security staff begins tomorrow at Portugal’s national airports, threatening passenger delays throughout the Easter period.

ANA airports authority recommends that people travelling between April 13 and 17 “check instructions transmitted by their airlines” and act accordingly.

New data from Schengen space security (SIS) reveals that just this year 537 people have been barred from entering Portugal - the majority (443) of them from what Diário de Notícias describes as “third world countries” with criminal records and alerts in place over having already been expelled from Schengen states. The remaining 94 were people already wanted on European arrest warrants. Says DN, these were arrested and extradited.

As for the wider implications of SIS data, DN claims that there are 830,000 people within the free circulation space who for one reason or another are “sought by the authorities”.

Article by kind permission of Portugal Resident

Journalists complain it’s hard work following Portugal’s energetic president Marcelo. This week has been no exception. From a visit to former colony Cape Verde, he has jetted off to Senegal - to be the first Portuguese head of state to visit the country, linked to Portugal through the Discoveries, since the April 25 revolution.

A highlight of the trip will be the delivery of 162 ambulances equipped by a Portuguese firm.

Doctors syndicates have called a two-day national strike for May 10-11.

The reasons given are “lack of agreement with the health ministry after a year of negotiations, and its failure to comply with established promises - namely to pay overtime and open placement programmes”:

According to householders, the air smells of “a kind of burnt rubber and sulphur” - and they hate it.

There is also an issue with dust - purportedly belched out of chimneys at the plant run by Cimpor (cement manufacturer) at Alhandra, near Vila Franca da Xira (district of Lisbon).

More than 500 million euros in dividends paid by businesses recently privatised in Portugal are due to leave this country.

News website Abrilabril - which claims to look at current events with an independent eye - says the real figure is almost certainly higher as “only stakeholders with more than 2% capital are obliged to communicate their identities”.

Talk of the “French Invasion” in terms of property investment has suddenly turned to “the Turkish discovery of Portugal” - bringing with it as much as €300 million in investment, just this year.

Media reports are highlighting just how attractive Portugal has become for the country that has been struggling for decades to get EU membership, and which is now as far from achieving it as it ever was.