Rui Cristina, a Chega deputy in the Assembly of the Republic, is set to become the next mayor of Albufeira, having defeated the Social Democrat José Carlos Rolo and preventing his reelection for another term.
Rui Cristina’s victory in Albufeira marks Chega’s entry into local government in the district of Faro, following the party’s wins in the 2024 and 2025 parliamentary elections in the Algarve.
Chega secured three out of seven seats, matching the PSD/CDS-PP, while the PS-BE-PAN coalition “Albufeira é Tua” came third, holding one of the remaining seven seats on the municipal executive.
In a municipality shaped by tourism, where there is a labor shortage to sustain the sector, issues of security and immigration stood out during the campaign. The now-elected mayor Rui Cristina assured that Chega “is not against immigration, they want regulated immigration.”
In his victory speech, the newly elected mayor of Albufeira expressed gratitude to those who voted for his list and all who participated in his campaign, stating that the victory belongs to “all who had the courage to join the Chega list” in the municipality.
“To the young people who believed in us, to all who supported us. There were those who spread fear, but the victory is ours,” the candidate told his supporters.
Rui Cristina also thanked the party’s president for “choosing him as a candidate” and “believing in him” to lead the list in Albufeira,
“This victory is not mine, it is not Chega’s, it belongs to all of us from Albufeira,” affirmed the elected mayor of the Algarve town, marking the end of several decades of PSD dominance.
