Prosecutor Shortfall Could Stall Portugal’s Court Cases for Years

The Procurator-General’s office has begun the kind of head-count that usually precedes a major reform. In plain terms, the numbers reveal an institution running on fumes while the volume of criminal, administrative and fiscal litigation keeps rising. Severe staff shortages, an ageing cadre of magistrates and the risk of near-term mass retirements have pushed the Public Prosecution Service to map every vacancy so that the Justice Ministry can draft a rescue plan stretching to 2030.

An overstretched Public Prosecution Service

At the heart of the new survey lies a blunt admission from Procurator-General Amadeu Guerra: the Ministério Público is operating below minimum strength in almost every jurisdiction. In the administrative and fiscal courts alone, 22 positions remain unfilled, leaving 61 magistrates to cope with caseloads designed for 83. The Central Administrative Courts are even thinner, with only 15 prosecutors where 27 are required. Those gaps translate into heavier dockets, longer rulings and growing frustration among citizens and businesses waiting for decisions that often arrive years late.

A wider judicial bottleneck

The crisis is not confined to prosecution. Across the court system, nearly 600 judges are expected to reach retirement age within six years. The Supreme Court of Justice is the symbol of the trend: projections suggest almost 90 % of its councillor judges could leave in a single year unless fresh appointments come quickly. Even the recruitment of 46 new judges last year has barely slowed the attrition rate, and administrative tribunals now work with less than one quarter of their ideal bench strength. Every unfilled robe adds days, then months, to the average time a file spends in limbo.

Government’s menu of remedies

Lisbon has signalled that it will combine a new wave of public competitions, temporary mobility regimes and modest salary incentives to lure talent back. The Centre for Judicial Studies has already opened the 42nd entry competition that allows candidates to choose the prosecution career track, and the Superior Council of the Public Prosecution Service is advancing parallel tenders for technical staff. In the civil service at large, the minimum monthly wage will rise to €875 next year with incremental hikes thereafter, a move the executive hopes will make the justice sector slightly more attractive. Nonetheless, unions insist that only a special intake of at least 100 prosecutors—and the modernisation of archaic IT platforms—will stem the outflow.

How Portugal compares with its neighbours

On paper, Portugal still posts a respectable 17 magistrates per 100 000 inhabitants, a figure that bundles judges and prosecutors and sits above the European mean of 12. Yet raw ratios can mislead. Spain fields roughly one third of that density, France fares worse, while Germany deploys far more judges and relies on extensive clerical support. Brussels offers no hard quotas; the Council of Europe merely urges member states to match resources to caseload. Comparative comfort therefore masks a domestic paradox: Portugal’s historical investment in human capital is being eroded faster than replacement mechanisms can respond.

What is at stake for citizens

For residents and companies, the abstract talk of FTEs and pay scales boils down to justice delayed and, increasingly, justice denied. Administrative lawsuits, the venue for many tax and public-contract disputes, already stretch close to a decade. Criminal mega-cases monopolise entire teams of prosecutors, leaving routine files unattended. The Procurator-General’s mapping exercise is meant to give the next government a spreadsheet they cannot ignore. Whether that translates into courtroom relief soon enough will determine if Portugal keeps pace with peer democracies—or slips into a backlog spiral that no budget tweak can reverse.

Looking ahead

The staffing audit is scheduled to reach the cabinet in the coming weeks, setting the stage for politically sensitive decisions early next year. Observers inside the Palácio de S. Bento expect intense debate over budget ceilings, training capacity and the delicate balance between swift hiring and the constitutional demand for an independent, high-quality prosecution service. One thing is clear: without fresh faces, upgraded digital tools and a coherent retention strategy, the promessa of faster, more transparent justice will remain exactly that—a promise.