Police Probe Nazaré Coastal Lease, Putting 40-Year Tourism Plan at Risk

The coastal icon of Nazaré, long synonymous with towering Atlantic waves, is now riding a very different swell. An anti-corruption task force raided offices in Lisbon, Caldas da Rainha and along the Leiria coast, seizing boxes of paper files and hard drives tied to a 40-year public-maritime concession. At the centre of the storm sits the Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente, better known as APA, which firmly argues that it had no legal steering wheel in this deal—even as detectives walked out with its archives.

At a glance

Four bare facts cut through the noise. First, Operation Dunas is looking at alleged corruption, forgery, money-laundering and economic participation in business. Second, the concession concerns nine seaside homes inside the Porto de Abrigo da Nazaré that were earmarked for tourist use after rehabilitation. Third, APA says its remit stops at technical opinions on water resources; licensing power, it claims, rested with Docapesca and the local harbour authority. Finally, the probe remains under judicial secrecy, meaning that the public will not see the evidence until prosecutors decide whether to file charges.

Why the Nazaré project matters

Holiday-makers know the white-walled cottages beneath the headland; few realised they sit on state-owned maritime land. In 2021 the government opened a tender granting private operators exclusive use for four decades, promising an upgrade that would “revitalise neglected heritage”. That rhetoric is now under question. Investigators suspect the concession price was set artificially low, then sweetened with favourable clauses that may have breached the Code of Public Contracts. For residents—from surfers in Praia do Norte to families living off small-scale tourism—the case rekindles memories of past scandals in coastal zoning where public assets slipped quietly into private hands.

What investigators are looking for

Forty criminal investigators, three public prosecutors and several cyber-forensics experts followed a paper trail across three districts. They want to know who drafted the tender specifications, who evaluated the bids and whether any official accepted opaque payments. Particular interest falls on the timeline: documents show that the winning consortium filed its environmental impact dossier after the concession had already been initialled. If true, that sequence could indicate a forged compliance stamp or at least an administrative shortcut that violated the principle of prior assessment set in Law 54/2005 on water domain management. Digital copies of email chains, contracting minutes and bank transfers are now in the Judicial Police evidence room in Leiria.

APA’s defence and the legal fine print

The APA calls itself a “mere technical consultant” in this dossier. As National Water Authority, it indeed issues binding opinions on river- and sea-related works. Yet the agency underlines that the concession area lies inside a port administered by Docapesca and supervised by the Direção de Faróis, entities that report to the Ministry of the Sea, not the Environment Ministry. In a brief note, APA stressed it has no power to sign or veto maritime leases and therefore cannot be held liable for potential irregularities. Legal scholars point out, however, that article 16 of Decree-Law 38/2015 allows APA to suspend projects if there is clear risk to the public domain. Whether that dormant power should have been exercised is likely to become a courtroom debate.

Political and local fallout

Opposition parties seized on the raids to accuse the government of lax oversight. Centre-right MPs demanded an urgent hearing with the Environment Minister, while the Left Bloc called for a transparency audit of every maritime concession issued since 2018. The former mayor of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro, confirmed that his council granted conventional urban-planning permits but insisted that “ownership remained with the State at every moment”. Among residents, reactions are mixed. Some worry the scandal will stall much-needed refurbishment of decaying waterfront property; others welcome a chance to reset the project under stricter safeguards. Environmental NGOs, surprisingly absent from earlier public consultations, are now pressing for publication of the concession contract in full.

What happens next

With the inquiry under segreto de justiça, official information will trickle out slowly. Prosecutors must decide whether to indict within a maximum of eight months unless they request an extension. Experts expect the investigation to test the boundaries of Portugal’s complex mosaic of coastal authorities, where responsibilities overlap between APA, harbour masters, municipalities and regional coordination commissions. For the tourism sector, the stakes are tangible: if the concession is annulled, the nine cottages could sit idle for years, freezing jobs and private capital. For APA, the case may redefine how far its environmental mandate stretches when State property meets high-value real-estate ambition.

One certainty remains—Nazaré’s winter swells will keep rolling in, indifferent to human paperwork. Whether the institutions tasked with protecting the shoreline can ride the next wave of scrutiny is the question now before courts, parliament and every taxpayer who feels the coast belongs to all.