True, there can be a lot of strikes, and oftentimes there are some political motivations associated.
Just one note! What most people call Police (PSP or GNR) doesn’t/cannot strike – it’s forbidden. The Municipal Police could strike, but that one has very limited responsibilities. What you could see Police doing are street protests by off-duty personnel. As for the firefighters, those only very rarely make any strike.

Regarding strikes, one thing to take into account is that Lisbon is ground zero for strikes, it is where the central government is located. Other areas will not have the same amount of strikes nor the same participation rates. For example, Madeira has far less strikes and participation rate can be low when they do have strikes.

Thank you for posting the real day to day struggles of living in Portugal. Especially around Bureaucracy it’s so challenging. You need so much time and patience to get anything done. Simple things like opening a bank account can be a miserable task.
Thanks for the honesty, so many people are unaware of the strikes, endless trips to get a simple thing done.

Again appreciate the info. My partner is Portuguese but was born in the US. He moved to Portugal as a young boy when his parents retired and moved back to Portugal. He moved back to The US at 18 and has been here since. But always wanted to go back. one sibling has already retired and moved back there. My fear is the language. I will be honest that my native language of English is not the best. So I am worried that I will never get it 100% and not feel comfortable there. But we are on the path of moving there next year and we are excited about the new adventures it will bring. I enjoy your honest approach to your videos and appreciate them.

Thank you for honest update.

Thank you. Very informative.

Excellent, balanced critique here. You are a reliable reporter. I honestly think the USA is going off a cliff which may make more of us leave. Keep going and much thanks xx

In Europe, strikes are a thing, even with counties that pay more. Especially in the spring-summer…Strike Season.

I think the reason why you weren't aware of strikes while watching YouTube videos before you came to Portugal is that strikes in Portugal happen in "waves", and those were probably low-strike years. There are years with almost no strikes, and there are years with lots of strikes. While PS was in coalition with BE and PCP strikes were few and far between, the moment PS got an absolute majority in Parliament and ditched its left-wing partners PCP suddenly got motivated to make life difficult for the government. Although PCP gets smaller and smaller at each election, it still has a capacity for "agitation" in the public sector that is disproportionate to its present electoral size.
Obviously not all strikes are traceable to PCP. Strikes by doctors, police, SEF, etc. all abide by different raisons d'être. I'm just suggesting that you do not jump to the conclusion that this level of strikes is the standard, and will happen every year.

I always appreciate your “reality” and “down to earth” comments. I find some (not all) YT creators offer misleading or contradictory info—without knowing so. I’ve commented elsewhere that I put more trust in videos by folks that live in PT vs passing through in a few days. From a tourist perspective, passing through comments are okay (I suppose) but for living, I place my money on folks like Joric to tell it like it is. Thank you. 🙏🏻

I'm actually happy to hear about the language. I've been spending months working on learning it and I want to be fluent eventually. So much harder to do if you can't get native people to speak their own language to you.