The proposal, presented in September 2024 by the socialist deputies elected by the Faro constituency, Jamila Madeira, Luís Graça and Jorge Botelho, was approved in general terms in the plenary in October 2024, with favourable votes from deputies from all benches.

The document was being analysed by the Local Power and Territorial Cohesion Commission, the body responsible for analysing all the legally required requirements and opinions for classification.

In the document, the PS deputies claimed that "it is easily concluded, by verifying the legal requirements", that Almancil meets the criteria to be elevated to the category of city.

By law, a location with more than 8,000 voters and at least half of the following facilities can be elevated to the category of city: hospital facilities, pharmacies, fire department, concert hall and cultural centre, museums and library, facilities for hotels, preparatory and secondary education establishments, pre-primary education establishments and nurseries, public transport and public parks or gardens.

Almancil is a parish in the municipality of Loulé, with an area of ​​62.30 square kilometres and 10,677 inhabitants, according to the 2021 Census, a population increase that has almost doubled since 1981.

The new city is located approximately 14 kilometres from Gago Coutinho International Airport, approximately six kilometres from the cities of Loulé and Quarteira and 10 kilometres from the city of Faro, the capital of the district.

The deputies highlight in the bill that Almancil “has a remarkable, cosmopolitan economic dynamism, with a set of fundamental infrastructures for economic and financial activity, of which banking institutions are the most visible part since it holds, throughout the country, the highest proportion of banking institutions 'per capita'”.