Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, the Civil Governments (, singular ') are the bodies of public administration that represent the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

at the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

level. Each Civil Government is headed by an ''administrative magistrate'' (delegate of the central government), the civil governor (, plural '), appointed by the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

, and under the remit of the Ministry of Internal Administration. The role of Civil Governments has become smaller since their creation in 1835. At first, they had broad powers of representation of the central government and the responsibility to coordinate all state services within the district; currently, they serve as, in practice, local delegations of the Ministry of Internal Administration, charged with issuing passports, public safety, and electoral procedure. In 2011, Prime Minister

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese people, Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the List of prime ministers of Portugal, 117th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 201 ...

'' de facto'' abolished all Civil Governments with Decree-Law No. 114/2011 of 30 November, that transfers all competences of the Civil Governments to other administrative bodies (such as the Municipal Chambers, the

Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

, the National Republican Guard, and the National Authority for Civil Protection). Even though no Civil Governors have been appointed since, the post is established in the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

and, ''

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' (; ; ) describes practices that are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with '' de facto'' ('from fa ...

'', is still extant.

References

Local government in Portugal {{Portugal-poli-stub