The mayor emphasised that the Coimbra City Council will continue to finance the second pass. This pass is not covered by the Government's free pass program, which only finances one per student. On 20 March, it was made public that SMTUC had notified the Intermunicipal Community (CIM) that it would stop covering this expense.

Students from other municipalities may need two passes. The Government program guarantees free access for only one of them.

“SMTUC has been financing the free pass [for young people from other municipalities] and will continue to do so,” said Ana Abrunhosa during today's executive meeting.

According to the mayor, the Intermunicipal Council met on Thursday. The municipalities of origin for students coming to Coimbra decided to refuse to pay for the second pass.

The municipality of Coimbra informs that the City Council will continue to cover the cost of the passes for the municipality. This decision was made because young people or their families faced the prospect of having to pay for the pass. The city will continue as it has been doing, according to Ana Abrunhosa.

On Thursday, the executive secretary of the CIM of the Coimbra Region informed the municipalities that SMTUC had notified the Intermunicipal Community that they would cease covering the free transport for students studying in Coimbra but travelling from neighbouring municipalities.

According to the official, who was informing the 19 municipalities of the Coimbra Region during the Intermunicipal Council meeting held on Thursday, the current model for supporting free student passes only covers the cost of one pass.

“It’s their choice, and we’re talking about a significant amount. Now, the municipalities either support this pass or inform the children that they have to start paying for these passes themselves,” stated Jorge Brito at the time, mentioning that the municipality of Condeixa-a-Nova would be one of the most impacted by this decision.

Ana Abrunhosa clarified that SMTUC (Coimbra's public transport services) will support the pass until there is integration into the intermodal pass by the operator that provides the intermunicipal transport network – SIT.

When this integration occurs, the issue of free passes will no longer be a problem, since students who use SIT will start using the intermodal pass to travel within the Coimbra Region, which is already used by SMTUC and Metro Mondego.

The Lusa news agency attempted, unsuccessfully, to obtain clarification on the matter from the Intermunicipal Community of the Coimbra Region.

In a clarification note from the Coimbra City Council sent to Lusa on Friday, after the news had already been published, the municipality never indicated that it would continue to cover the cost of student passes for students from other municipalities, stating that there had been technical discussions with the municipalities regarding the form of support, so that Coimbra would not be assuming the costs for students from other municipalities.

"Possibly, and as assumed by Coimbra, the higher-value pass should be covered by the state program and the lower-value pass by the municipality of origin," it stated.

In that clarification, the municipality also said that it has had "accounts to settle with the Intermunicipal Community regarding free passes" since 2024.