Pedro Pimpão, the re-elected Social Democrat president of the Pombal City Council in the district of Leiria, and a current member of the ANMP’s Directive Council, is the sole known candidate and is expected to be elected as the new president of the association, replacing the socialist Luísa Salgueiro, president of the Matosinhos City Council.
Luísa Salgueiro, who was elected president in 2021, vacates the position after the PSD won in more councils nationwide, thus securing the presidency of the association that represents the municipalities.
In addition to mayors from the PSD and the PS, the executive body of the association, which will represent municipalities for the next four years, will include presidents of Councils elected by independent movements.
For the first time, the CDU, which won in 12 councils, is excluded from the ANMP’s direction, and Chega, which elected only three council presidents, also did not achieve enough results for a place in the ANMP’s Directive Council.
The Porto municipality, which in the last term staged the first split in the ANMP, has approved its return to the association of municipalities.
At the XXVII Congress of the ANMP, taking place on Saturday and Sunday at the Cultural Center of Viana do Castelo, the most relevant topics for municipalities in the coming years will also be discussed, including autonomy, decentralization, local funding, sustainability, and territorial cohesion.
In an interview, Pedro Pimpão promised loyalty to the PSD Government, which is his party, but also relentless defense of the municipalities’ interests.
The mayor considered that it is also in the Government’s interest to have a “strong, demanding association that helps, in a positive, constructive way, with new ideas, to improve what already exists.”
The candidate for the leadership of the ANMP also believed that the decentralization of competencies from the Central Administration to the municipalities should have been better negotiated and argued that the existing decentralization funding fund “needs to be reinforced.”
Pedro Pimpão further stated that he would like to receive as a gift from the Government the revision of the Local Finance Law, on the 50th anniversary of democratic local power, which will be marked in 2026.
“I am sure there must be this gift because it is a commitment from the Government. At present, on the part of the municipalities’ association, there is a willingness to collaborate constructively so that this new law becomes a reality, and we will work together to achieve this,” he said.
The ANMP holds congresses every two years, with only those following local elections being elective.
The Directive Council is an executive body composed of a president, five vice-presidents, and 11 members, elected by delegates at the National Congress in a multi-member list.
The congress will also be attended by the Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida, and the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro.
In the local elections held on October 12, the PSD, with its own lists or in coalitions, won in 136 municipalities, compared to 128 for the PS, when in 2021 it had triumphed in 114, against 149 for the socialists.
