Expats across Europe have helped boost to more than 12,000 a petition against UK government plans to stop the Winter Fuel Payment for those in countries deemed ‘too hot.’ This includes Portugal.

The petition has grown by 3,000 signatures in a week. It means that the UK government will give a written response, as it must do for all petitions of 10,000 signatures or more.

An official reply is expected to be received in October. Should the petition gain 100,000 or more signatures by its closing date in June 2014, the matter also will be debated in parliament.

It is indicative of how much things have changed in Europe in recent years that the outcome of the general election in Germany last weekend is likely to have a much more profound effect on Portugal than the elections to be held throughout Portugal this coming Sunday.

Commentators in Berlin say the euro crisis played only a marginal role in the German election campaign, the first in that country since the start of the eurozone crisis, but it is expected to continue to be very high on Angela Merkel’s agenda during her fourth term in office.