“We fell short of our goals,” said Francisco Queirós, who sought re-election for a fifth consecutive term as a councilor in the Coimbra City Hall.
The coalition Avançar Coimbra (PS/Livre/PAN) won the City Hall with 42.14% of the votes (five mandates), followed by the coalition Juntos Somos Coimbra (PSD/CDS-PP/IL/Nós, Cidadãos!/PPM/Volt/MPT), led by the outgoing president José Manuel Silva, with 37.84% (five mandates), and in third place is Chega (one mandate, elected for the first time), with 8.17% of the votes.
With this result, the CDU, which lost nearly two thousand votes (4.78%) in the Coimbra City Hall, exits the lineup of elected officials.
The coalition also lost its leadership in two parish councils (Cernache by 21 votes and Taveiro, Ameal, and Arzila) and lost one of the three municipal deputies it had managed to elect in 2021.
“The results do not correspond to what we felt during the campaign, with very interesting dynamics in the parishes,” noted Francisco Queirós.
When asked about the reason for this defeat, Francisco Queirós suggested that a “more detailed analysis” of the result is needed, but believes that “some strategic voting” might have occurred in the final days.
“There was clearly some strategic voting on election day, which would have significantly influenced” the CDU’s results, he said, believing that “a substantial portion” of the nearly two thousand lost votes may have gone to the coalition led by PS.
Despite this, Francisco Queirós emphasized that the CDU “will not cease to have its role and intervene in the existing framework, with the elected officials it has and through the strength of its members and activists.”
The CDU “does not withdraw from the fight,” he stressed.
