The president of the Lisbon City Council has failed in his most fundamental duty: ensuring the safety of the city and protecting the lives of those who live, work, and visit it. It is not enough to celebrate concession contracts: it is necessary to supervise, act preventively, and take responsibility. None of this was done, stated the municipal group of Chega in the motion of censure against Moedas.
The motion follows the derailment on Wednesday of the Glória elevator in Lisbon, resulting in 16 deaths and 22 injuries, affecting both Portuguese individuals and foreigners of various nationalities.
Bruno Mascarenhas, from the municipal group, commented that the “consequences of this tragedy are devastating,” particularly in terms of “fatalities, severe injuries, and destroyed families,” and “loss of confidence by Lisbon residents and the international community in municipal public services.”
Furthermore, it also impacts “negatively on tourism and Lisbon’s international reputation” and involves “compensations that, directly or indirectly, could fall on taxpayers, as Carris is fully owned by the City Council.”
The political censure states that “the Glória elevator is not just a means of transport,” but “a national monument, a symbol of the city, and a public facility under the direct responsibility of the Lisbon municipality.”
The operation and maintenance of the equipment connecting Bairro Alto to Praça dos Restauradores is overseen by Carris, a company 100% owned by the city council, “but the oversight, supervision, and political guardianship belong to the mayor” and the executive, as emphasized in the motion.
“Despite having delegated responsibilities to Councillor Filipe Anacoreta Correia [CDS-PP], the law is clear: actions carried out under delegation are as if practiced by the mayor himself,” the proponents argued, adding that the maintenance contract with the private company ended on August 31, and the public tender remained vacant.
Facing the use of “direct adjustment, without reinforcement of guarantees or extraordinary inspections,” it was considered that “at the time of the accident, the Glória elevator was operating without stable contractual coverage, in a transitional regime exposing users and tourists to known risks.”
“Furthermore, unions and workers had been warning of cable tension failures and recurring maintenance issues. These warnings were ignored by the city council executive – the supervisory entity,” it was pointed out.
In the legal context, it was noted that, according to the concession contract, the suspension by Carris from “2011 to 2016 of any investments in renewing the bus and tram fleet causes very severe difficulties in fulfilling its contractual obligations for public service.”
In this sense, it is “in the interest of the city of Lisbon to maintain Carris as the municipality’s internal operator,” but there is a need for “extension of the contractual term of the concession.”
As Carris is a “local company,” the Lisbon City Council appoints its representative at the general assembly, and Carlos Moedas’ executive entrusted the councilor of Mobility to vote favorably for the election of the chairman of the board of directors.
The motion also mentions that the public service concession contract includes the obligation of the concessionaire to “comply with instructions and determinations transmitted by the grantor” and “submit to technical and operational inspections as provided by law.”
The accident resulted in 16 fatalities – five Portuguese, two South Koreans, one Swiss, three British, two Canadians, one Ukrainian, one American, and one French – identified by the Judiciary Police and National Institute of Forensic Medicine.
