Brazilian public institutions have authorized at least 135 officials and staff to travel to Portugal for the Lisbon Forum, an annual legal and political conference coordinated by Supreme Federal Court Justice Gilmar Mendes and widely nicknamed “Gilmarpalooza,” according to Folha de S.Paulo.
The 14th edition of the event is scheduled for June 1-3 at the University of Lisbon. Its official program describes 71 panels across seven university spaces, with more than 450 confirmed participants from 15 countries. The theme is “New International Order, Technology and Sovereignty: Democratic, Economic and Social Challenges.”
Folha’s count is partial. It is based on names found in official gazettes and on websites of public bodies linked to federal, state and municipal governments. The real number may be higher, since several institutions have not yet published full travel data.
Some of the travel costs will be paid with public money. Folha reported that only two bodies that had disclosed figures — the Piauí State Court of Justice and the Federal Audit Court, known as the TCU — will together pay R$692,000 in daily allowances for members and staff. The Piauí court authorized a 13-person delegation and R$392,000 in allowances. The TCU will send 13 representatives, including four ministers, with R$300,000 in allowances.
The Attorney General’s Office, or AGU, had the largest number of authorizations identified by Folha, with at least 22 people cleared to travel. The federal government’s official travel panel had not yet published costs for those trips.
The Tocantins state government authorized Governor Wanderlei Barbosa, of the Republicans party, to travel with at least eight people, including first lady Karynne Sotero Campos, whose airfare will be paid by the state. The government did not disclose the total cost of allowances, hotels and tickets. It said Barbosa’s agenda was part of a strategy to strengthen Tocantins’s institutional presence and promote the state’s infrastructure, logistics, agribusiness and environmental potential. He is listed as a speaker on a panel about energy and the green and digital economy.
The Senate had received travel requests from at least four senators: Camilo Santana, Eduardo Gomes, Laércio Oliveira and Cid Gomes. The Chamber of Deputies said it would release information on lawmakers whose expenses would be covered once the data were consolidated.
The official presentation of the forum lists a broad Brazilian presence: 13 Superior Court of Justice ministers, three Supreme Court justices, four sitting TCU ministers, members of electoral and labor courts, regulatory agencies, public banks, state governments and Congress. It also lists international speakers including New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and economist Joel Mokyr.
The forum’s organizers said in a statement that the meeting is “strictly academic,” promoted by teaching and research institutions, and focused on legal, institutional and scientific debate on matters of public interest. They said any participation by public officials results from decisions made independently by their own institutions under their internal administrative rules.
The event has drawn scrutiny in Brasília because it brings together judges, politicians, regulators, lawyers and business figures abroad, often with public travel funding and private social events around the official program. Previous reporting by Estadão on the 2024 edition identified R$1.34 million in public spending on allowances and airfare for authorities and staff who attended that year’s forum, though those figures refer to an earlier edition and are not part of Folha’s 2026 tally.
Gilmar Mendes has rejected criticism of the Lisbon venue and of the event’s political significance. In an interview with Folha, he said the 2026 edition may be one of the largest yet, with more than 470 speakers and competition for seats. The forum said participation in academic conferences is historically part of public-sector training, technical exchange and institutional capacity-building.