In remarks to journalists following the signing of a coalition agreement between PS, Livre, BE, and PAN for Lisbon’s upcoming municipal elections, led by Socialist candidate Alexandra Leitão, Livre’s spokesperson Rui Tavares remarked that “Lisbon is a city greatly loved by its inhabitants, but poorly loved by its mayor and councillors with portfolios.”
In response to questions regarding the coalition’s exclusion of CDU, whose candidate will be councillor João Ferreira, Tavares expressed respect for all political forces, emphasizing that the only alternative to the “vain for TikTok” mayoral presidency is this coalition.
“We don’t create haphazard alliances afterward, there is no possibility of going fragmented only to understand each other later. And here in Lisbon, the right is united, and Chega is presenting a candidate just to mark presence and do a favor for Carlos Moedas,” he warned.
The Livre spokesperson observed that “things are unlocking on the left” and stressed that the last legislative elections left the country significantly unbalanced, with a President of the Republic, Government, and parliamentary president “from the right.”
“Portugal is not a country meant to live so unbalanced, and the Portuguese certainly want to rebalance Portuguese politics. Where does this begin? For instance, it begins in Lisbon. It starts in all cities where there are coalitions and where the left electorate, but not exclusively left, progressive, but not exclusively progressive, democratic, will know who to vote for,” he highlighted.
From BE, national coordinator Mariana Mortágua accused the incumbent president and candidate, Carlos Moedas, of having created “an elite city, a city for the richest of the rich.”
“The city can’t be this, it has to be a city for everyone. And it is in the name of this project, I think it was well remembered here the experience of Jorge Sampaio, when the sum of the parties can be worth much more than the parties themselves, when it can create hope in a mobilizing, transformative city project,” she argued.
For the BE leader, “radical is how the city is now, in the bad sense,” citing dirtiness and lack of housing for those working in the city as examples.
“I think this effort for coalitions to exist, for movements to unite in the name of more democratic cities and localities, respecting the major challenges of our times, from housing to climate change, are what can bring hope to the future. And Lisbon sends a major initial signal,” she praised.
According to Mortágua, with a right-wing government and a right-wing executive in Lisbon, “Carlos Moedas in the last four years did a lot of propaganda but changed very little of the city for the better.”
PAN’s spokesperson, Inês de Sousa Real, also asserted that “this is the time for a real shift in the city so that it is not only committed to the innovation and progress we want to bring back but also with the environmental commitment of returning to having more green spaces, more bike lanes, more animal welfare.”
Describing that “Lisbon took a step back under Carlos Moedas’ mandate regarding animal welfare policies,” Sousa Real rejected “imported policies.”
“Because we no longer need unicorn factories, we need a Lisbon for real people with real lives and problems that have been neglected,” she stated.
