Luís Montenegro addressed a rally in Trofa, in the Porto district, in support of the candidate backed by PSD and CDS-PP, Sérgio Araújo, the current councilor of the municipality.
During his speech, the candidate challenged Luís Montenegro, also the prime minister, to address this demand, warning that he could “bring 10,000 people and close Lisbon” if there were no updates soon regarding the Trofa metro.
“It is only possible, Sérgio, to deal with the metro’s green line and bring it to Trofa if we continue to have good financial management and if we keep growing economically,” Montenegro began.
He further added, “I am not here as a governor, but as the PSD president, I know that the prime minister is aware that there will be news in the first half of 2026,” he joked.
Montenegro argued that the government he leads has maintained the balance in public accounts “not due to more taxes or less investment, but due to fewer taxes and more investment” in areas such as health, school rehabilitation, and also mobility, “in the name of the environment and quality of life.”
“People need the hours they spend in the car to have more leisure opportunities, to meet with their friends, to meet with their families. And companies need to transport their goods, their raw materials, more quickly to be more productive, create more wealth so that we can then distribute it equally,” he argued.
Montenegro arrived in Trofa around 2:45 PM, after supporters had already had lunch, as he had participated in the official October 5th ceremonies in Lisbon as prime minister.
In this municipality, the current president António Azevedo will run as an independent candidate in the next local elections, after having replaced Sérgio Humberto last year, who resigned from the municipality to take the position of MEP and is now Sérgio Araújo’s mandate manager.
As he had done in Mafra on Saturday, Montenegro criticized this type of dissent, which he does not consider “true independents.”
“Those who leave the parties because they do not understand or accept their decisions are not true independents, they are neither from the parties nor independent. They are people—and I will be restrained—looking for an opportunity that neither the parties nor the truly independent movements offered them. That’s it, nothing more,” he said.
Montenegro assured that PSD and CDS-PP are united in supporting Sérgio Araújo: “This is the only PSD candidacy, there is no other, there are no PSD copies, there is only one. It is original, and it is this one,” he stated.
As he has done in many municipalities, the PSD leader and prime minister reiterated that the government wants to have “close partners” in the local authorities.
“Competent partners, diligent partners, partners with the same philosophy, with the same will, with the same soul, with the same drive that we have,” he argued.
Once again, he listed various measures of the executive, for the younger and the older, lamenting that, for example, more attention is not given to the young IRS format designed by this executive, “a unique measure in Europe and the world.”
At this point, he criticized those who “have the audacity” to say that the government legislates “only for some.”
“We govern the country with this culture of intergenerational meeting, with the enthusiasm of seeing a grandchild next to the grandfather or grandmother, a child next to the father and mother, or vice versa, the parents next to the children, the grandparents next to the grandchildren,” he said.
At a lunch for 1,500 people, according to the candidate for the City Council, Sérgio Araújo promised that he would not be “gentle” with the PSD president but also “would not be too harsh, because this is a government that more than promises, it acts.”
